Blair, Gates in scribble gaffe

When a sheet of paper covered in doodles was found on Tony Blair’s desk at the Davos World Economic Forum, handwriting experts delighte...

When a sheet of paper covered in doodles was found on Tony Blair’s desk at the Davos World Economic Forum, handwriting experts delighted in analysing it, concluding the Prime Minister was stressed and under pressure.

Experts who examined the tangle of boxes, circles, loops and notes on debt and trade variously described Blair as “struggling to concentrate”or “not a natural leader” and “stressed and tense.”

But there was a problem.

The doodles, it later transpired, were nothing to do with Blair but were the work of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who shared a table with Blair at the summit.

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“Somebody from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has said that the notes are from Bill Gates rather than from Tony Blair,” a spokesman from Blair’s Downing Street office said on Monday. “We were surprised nobody bothered to ask us about this when the paper was made public last week because the writing is obviously not the prime ministers,” he added.

Psychologists and graphologists drafted in by a number of British newspapers even noted how “Blair’s” handwriting had changed for the worse since he first won election as British Prime Minister in 1997.

“We look forward to psychologists reassessing their conclusions of how these characteristics ascribed to the Prime Minister equally apply to Mr. Gates,” the Downing Street spokesman said.