Boys will be boys but girls are best for older fathers

IF I WERE in the Prime Minister's boots, I would be hoping that his fourth child is a girl. Quite apart from the fact that he has two boys already, there is the football, which can put a strain on a man who will be 60 when his son is still in his teens.

Yes, we all know Mr Blair demonstrated great skill when heading a ball with Kevin Keegan, but his deficiencies may begin to show by that time.

I know about this because our first child, a son, was born when I was 39, and I was 47 when our fourth one arrived. Mercifully for my aching limbs, the last three were girls. I was able to keep up pace until he reached the age of nine but I fear that any further sons would have been neglected in the sporting department.

We visited the Blairs in Sedgefield when Cherie was expecting her last child.

Tony was, of course, a model father - cooking the lunch, changing nappies, discussing economic policy with Gordon Brown on the telephone, taking my son and me to a football match.

And we had dinner with them at Granita's when my wife, who is the same age as Cherie, was expecting our fourth. I recall Mrs Blair saying she always wanted more children but that circumstances seemed to be conspiring against this.

The shadow home secretary, as he then was, thought it was very funny when my wife told him that I enjoyed fathering children. We all do, don't we. Even when it comes to the exhausting responsibilities later. It is good that the Blairs are still having fun.

"They drive you mad," the Prime Minister has said.

"And they keep you sane." I would remind Mr Blair that there is a beautiful cherry tree in the corner at Downing Street, provided by readers of the Evening Standard when the IRA lobbed a mortar into the garden a few years ago.

While this would be suitable for girls to climb, it would almost certainly be destroyed if used as a goal by Blair boys.

But enough of football.

We are not all football crazy and Mr Blair will not even have to feign an interest in sport for political reasons when his fourth child reaches these active years.

If the Prime Minister has any regrets about having a fourth child I expect it will be that he doesn't have as much time as he did to be more closely involved. But at least he has the advantage that the family lives over the shop.

Daughters, as everyone knows, are much better for older fathers. They look after you tenderly, at least this is what I am hoping.

Copyright 1999
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