So, Tony Blair found time to visit Toulouse to see the unveiling of the Airbus A380 but can’t fit in a flying visit to Auschwitz on January 27.

Mind you, Holocaust Memorial Day doesn’t seem to have been very high on New Labour’s to do list this year. Jack Straw’s only going because Ivor Caplin, the lickspittle defence minister, and Denis MacShane, the gobshite Europe Minister, were deemed too lowly to be the UK’s representatives after the witless antics of a certain ginger royal.

Not that I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about Holocaust Memorial Day. My views on the day are very much mirrored by Nick Cohen who’s written at length about it, particularly in his book Pretty Straight Guys.

It’s just that in the past Blair’s appeared at bashes or spoken out on all manner of subjects - dead Diana, dead Sinatra, poor banged-up Deirdre Rashid off Coronation Street - when he thought he’d get his grinning fizzog on the telly, in the papers or one step closer to posterity. Just don’t mention Tsunamis.

But the reason why Blair was in Toulouse becomes clear when you study what he had to say at the Airbus unveiling:

Blair also said that some 20,000 UK workers had been directly involved in the project, over 400 companies would benefit and there would be billions of pounds of export gains.

Ah. Of course. The Prime Minister is a salesman. Quite clearly, he sees it as his job to shill these things. He’s spent, hopefully, a profitable afternoon selling lovely shiny aeroplanes. Just think of all the gravy those 400 companies’ shareholders will see.

Just how Tony’s presence in Toulouse this afternoon helps you and me I’m not quite sure. But it might have helped him. After all, he’s going to need quite a few directorships very soon to pay the mortgage on that lovely new flat.