Former prime minister Tony Blair’s lockdown “mullet” stunned TV viewers and sparked a deluge of online discussions about the wild length of his hair.
The former Labour leader spoke to ITV about the prospects of Scottish independence, but most people seemed to find his wavy mane, tucked back behind ears, much more compelling.
The Twitterati compared him to Doc from the Back to the Future movies, strip club supremo Peter Stringfellow or Queen legend Brian May.
Some pointed out a passing resemblance to lizard-hating conspircy theorist David Icke, the original Doctor Who actor William Hartnell and Elrond, the half-elven leader from Lord of the Rings.
Others simply pleaded with him to get a haircut. “I’m sorry but someone is going to have to stage an intervention over Tony Blair’s hair,” said Times Radio host Aasmah Mir.
Mr Blair has said he doubts the people of Scotland want another independence referendum – even if Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP were to win a majority at Holyrood next week.
“My best bet is that in the end Scotland will vote ultimately to remain inside the UK, but I agree it’s proved to be a tougher fight than we anticipated,” he told ITV.
“Of course it becomes more difficult over time that if opinion looks as if it’s fixed, but let’s see if that’s actually the case.”
Mr Blair also claimed the union “would already be in in tatters” if Labour hadn’t implemented its manifesto commitment to carry out devolution and legislate to set up the Scottish parliament.
“Where I think we were wrong was in believing that devolution would end the argument for independence – it hasn’t ended,” said Mr Blair. “But it’s still a very substantial part of the bulwark against it.”
Meanwhile, a new paper from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has claimed a third wave of coronavirus across the UK is not inevitable.
Vaccinating adolescents could prevent a resurgence of the virus later in the year, while speeding up the pace of vaccine rollout to offer all eligible people a first dose would prevent a summer spike entirely, it said.
