Tony Blair is just being even-handed.

Also from the Sunday Times of London (proprietor Rupert Murdoch), Blair adviser acted for Packer casinos.

A FORMER Downing Street adviser lobbied the government to relax gambling laws and pave the way for valuable casino contracts on behalf of Kerry Packer, the Australian billionaire, newly released Whitehall documents have disclosed.
Michael Stephenson, Tony Blair’s former political secretary, is the London representative for a firm of lobbyists which is employed by Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), Packer’s private investment vehicle.

Given the mutual brown-nosing between Blair and Murdoch (examples here, here and here) and the previous commercial battles between Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch, I challenge anyone to say that Tony Blair is not even-handed in his approach to commercial operations.
In fairness, I should point out that when it suits them Packer and Murdoch do co-operate commercially(examples here and here)
A final quote from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport:

“We learnt very important lessons from Australia on exactly how not to deregulate the industry, which was borne out in the tough controls laid out in the Gambling Act. We met people from all sides of the debate and nobody was given preferential access or influence.”

Yeah.

Is Tony Blair aiming for a state funeral?

The Sunday Times of London reported that Thatcher could get ‘royal’ funeral.

BARONESS THATCHER could become the first former prime minister since Sir Winston Churchill to receive a major public funeral in central London.
The ceremonial send-off under consideration in Whitehall would involve a televised procession through London followed by a service at either Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral.

So what you ask? But it continues:

However, it may pose an intriguing dilemma for Tony Blair He is known to be an admirer of hers and privately consulted her after taking office. He also attended her 80th birthday celebrations at a London hotel last Thursday.
....
An official closely involved said: “There are informal talks going on.” The Cabinet Office said it was “unaware” of any discussions.

I bet that the blessed Tony is already doing the maths (hint: who served longest as Prime Minister?)
BTW, I suspect that any 'royal' funeral for Thatcher would end up more like the poll tax riots (aka Battle of Trafalgar) rather than the public outpouring of grief that was Princess Di's funeral

Update:

From Monday's Guardian.