Bright-eyed PM takes birthday jokes in style

The birthday seemed perfect for a Geordie swinger. A present of a Newcastle United shirt signed by Alan Shearer, a slap-up lunch and a day-trip to Dublin, hard-drinking capital of Europe.

Most men in late middle age try to fend off the advancing years by donning flowery shirts, chatting up girls and downing the tequila like a character in Hawaii Five-O. But for the Prime Minister yesterday it was more a case of "Howay Five-O!" as he embraced his 50th birthday with the vigour of a politician keen to project his "man of the people" image.

Only a few weeks ago ,he claimed to Saga magazine that he was "dreading" his half century and last week refused to talk to journalists about it.

But despite waking to a series of migraine-inducing headlines about foundation hospitals and Northern Ireland, Mr Blair was as bright-eyed and charming as ever.

After a quick photocall with the Red Cross on the steps of Downing Street, he spent the morning on paperwork before giving a speech on public service reform to regional newspaper editors. The speech was prefaced by vintage Blairite self-effacement, complete with jokes about his age.

"I wasn't looking forward to reaching 50 and this gloom was before I opened today's newspapers and found I was used ­ without my permission ­ to advertise Sanatogen," he said. "As somebody pointed out to me this morning, it's better than the [impotence] advertisements Pele is fronting."

Mr Blair added that he had been approached by a member of the public who recounted how newspapers had been commenting on how much he had aged. "She then took a good look at me and said 'Actually, it's worse than I thought'," he said.

Yet as he went on to outline his plans for foundation hospitals and criminal justice reform, it was clear that this was not a man with a midlife, let alone mid-term crisis.

He referred so frequently to his age that when he talked about "elderly people worried to walk down the street to the shops in case they get problems with louts and layabouts", observers could have been forgiven for thinking he was describing his own relations with Fleet Street.

Later, while Mr Blair was on his way to his meeting with Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, in Dublin, the agent John Burton let slip that he was planning to give Mr Blair the Shearer-signed Newcastle shirt.

"I thought getting a shirt from Shearer would be a nice surprise but I've been told I'll have to wait for the new ones coming out, so I won't be able to give it to him on his birthday" Mr Burton said.

After his talks with Mr Ahern, the Prime Minister flew back to London for a more traditional family birthday party with Cherie and their children, Euan, Nicky, Katherine and Leo. There were no details on whether the Prime Minister, a "Dad-rock" devotee of bands such as U2 and Simply Red, played Happy Birthday on his guitar. But given the effort put into providing voter-friendly stories about the day, details may well emerge.

After all, as his official spokesman put it: "It is a very much a working day."