Prime candidate for handwriting analysis

“Could you just sign there, Prime Minister, just above where it says… er Prime Minister.” With that the BBC TV presenter introduced the final leg of Tony Blair’s slick launch of the Millennium Product Challenge last week. The pen was special and signing would send the document by fax and e-mail to 16 000 businesses and a website. If it worked.

After a brief wrestle with the recalcitrant pen there eventually appeared a scratchy signature that Blair would probably have been proud of when he was in short trousers. “I’d just like to promise you that I normally write better than that,” he told his designerly audience. Phew.