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BIRMINGHAM, England, Nov 23 (AFP) - Embarrassed by newspaper leaks, British Prime Minister Tony Blair came clean Friday over what his officials had spent the previous day trying to deny: he can't spell 'tomorrow'.
He admitted that he had incorrectly spelled the word tomorrow as toomorrow in a handwritten message to a Labour Party candidate in a by-election Thursday in Ipswich, eastern England.
Not just once, but three times. All gleefully reported in the press.
At first, Downing Street insisted it was just his handwriting that made it look as if the word had one 'o' too many.
"There was a very lame attempt from my press office to suggest that it was just my writing that was at fault, not my spelling," Blair admitted Friday, at the start of a keynote speech on Europe in Birmingham, central England.
But "I regret I have to put my hands up fully and say no, it was indeed my spelling that was at fault."
The prime minister said he decided to come clean after a journalist pointed out that he had been visiting a school Thursday and was delivering his speech Friday at a university so must feel "at home" at institutes of education.
Or perhaps it was after his former English master revealed Thursday to the BBC that while Blair had been an "obnoxiously bright" pupil at school, he had always had trouble with the word 'tomorrow'.
He admitted that he had incorrectly spelled the word tomorrow as toomorrow in a handwritten message to a Labour Party candidate in a by-election Thursday in Ipswich, eastern England.
Not just once, but three times. All gleefully reported in the press.
At first, Downing Street insisted it was just his handwriting that made it look as if the word had one 'o' too many.
"There was a very lame attempt from my press office to suggest that it was just my writing that was at fault, not my spelling," Blair admitted Friday, at the start of a keynote speech on Europe in Birmingham, central England.
But "I regret I have to put my hands up fully and say no, it was indeed my spelling that was at fault."
The prime minister said he decided to come clean after a journalist pointed out that he had been visiting a school Thursday and was delivering his speech Friday at a university so must feel "at home" at institutes of education.
Or perhaps it was after his former English master revealed Thursday to the BBC that while Blair had been an "obnoxiously bright" pupil at school, he had always had trouble with the word 'tomorrow'.
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