At the end of their days, Tony still won't be in Thatcher's class

It is time once again to redefine the state of being middle class. A quarter of a century ago, Margaret Thatcher had a go. She famously made it a lot easier for working-class folk to buy their own home and purchase shares.

She left an inheritance which defined us as a nation - more confident, less deferential but more selfish.

Then we had Tony Blair. He defined middle class as being tolerant and cool. His inheritance has yet to be finalised.

But then I read that the British-born men suspected of wishing to blow up the skies over the Atlantic were 'well educated', and 'middle class'.

Terrorism is no stranger to the middle classes; witness a string of African despots who first learned how to strangle their political opponents with their bare hands on the playing fields of Britain's top public schools.

But, even allowing for the fact that we are no longer a cap-doffing elitist society, I have never thought that the potting sheds of middle-class Britain were hotbeds of bombing campaigns where in-flight cocktails are brewed.

Blair and Thatcher share a common cause in that both wish to be remembered as championing the aspirations of that great swathe of Britain that is neither Corporal Jones nor Lord Snooty.

Last week I read that Tony Blair apparently had in mind to give Labour's old adversary a State funeral. This was quickly scuppered by Party Lefties. But it showed a fascinating insight into the man's thinking.

Blair, with some justification, truly believes that he reflects the middle-class view. He is supported in this by the fact that he, like Thatcher, achieved three Election successes.

Ever the actor, he sees himself being carried aloft in a glass coffin through the streets of Islington, while millions bow their heads. But to do this he had to make it happen for Margaret Thatcher.

He felt they had the same constituency in the middle class. The now Lady Thatcher had not been popular towards the end of her decade in power, mirroring Blair, who will have clocked up the same mileage next spring.

She is still hated by a sizeable few and given grudging respect by many.

Blair is hated by many, but sees that he could recover by the time the grim reaper serves up that final plate of polenta.

In championing a State funeral for Thatcher, Blair sees it as a template for his own departure.

Both have been powerful leaders who have made radical and dangerous decisions. She left an inheritance which crippled a succession of Tory leaders. He will do the same for the Labour hierarchy which follows him.

It may be that Thatcher would relish having her bones seen off at a State occasion. But I have my doubts. She can be an appalling snob, but her attitude to events such as births and deaths, reflects that of my old mum: 'Don't make a fuss dear'.

Not so Tony Blair.

Blair is clearly in a state of panic over the last leg of his premiership.

He, like Thatcher, appealed to the basic instincts of his fellow citizens. He, like her, is going batty in his last months in power.

Whether he can recover in the years of his retirement is not for today.

He has cleared off on holiday at the home of Cliff Richard while the rest of us cannot leave the country thanks to well-educated, middle-class chaps who have done night-school chemistry.

If Blair has shaped the present middle class of this country, it is in a way that is not entirely welcome.

While Thatcher may have brutalised us in monetary matters, Blair has postured as a moral man only to disappoint and set a poor example.

Why not occasionally lie in your minuscule everyday dealings when you witness a Prime Minister who goes to war on a false premise?

If that Prime Minister appears to be in the pocket of wealthy businessmen from whom he takes favours, why not ignore the taxman and pay cash for a Baltic builder whose presence in your country may not strictly be in accordance with the rules?

THATCHER, although no saint, stayed within the rule of law. But what are we supposed to think when told that the Prime Minister, when he comes back from his holidays, is to be questioned by police on his role in securing secret loans to pay for his return to Downing Street?

I do not wish to be too hard on Blair. A certain affliction affects all those who are all-powerful for too long.

But he shares less than he would like with the woman he would wish to see buried with pomp and circumstance.

Thatcher gets the point that to be truly middle class is to be understated.

I do not think the idea of a State funeral appeals. She may have gone a bit odd at the end of her time in No10, but she does understand what my mum did about not making a fuss dear.

Blair will never get that.