In his youth, Tony Blair's rebellious streak often landed him in
trouble. He was almost expelled from school for persistent rule-breaking
and was once arrested as he tried to climb into his dormitory through a
window.
The future Prime Minister remained equally impish when at Oxford - as this
extraordinary picture of him making a lewd hand gesture demonstrates.
A photograph of Tony Blair as a long-haired, boater-wearing student was
reproduced in a number of newspapers with focus on his less than prime
ministerial hand gesture.
The shaggy-haired undergraduate from St John's College, Oxford
University -- dressed in a blue blazer, white shirt with enormous collars
and a straw hat perched at a jaunty angle -- has been seen before but
only from the waist up.
BBC's "Newsight" programme has now unearthed the original and published
it in full, complete with the then 21-year-old Blair's universally
understood right-hand gesture around his groin area.
Although the photo has been published before, Mr Blair's hand gesture
was digitally removed from it by the press agency which supplied it, out
of respect for the Prime Minister.
A "Newsight" reporter found the snap of the apparently well-oiled college archery club in 1975
while researching a student photograph of Conservative leader David
Cameron.
On Blair's photo, the Daily Express wondered: "So, Tony... is that
where you learnt gesture politics?"
