AS IF THE country needed any clearer message that the housing market was scuppered than the daily diet of gloomy reports, on estate agencies closing, home repossessions up and activity down - the Blairs have been home shopping again.

This is bad news indeed since, when it comes to property, the former PM and his wife have shown a wilful inability to get things right.

A brief resume runs as follows: they sold their family home in Islington, the chi-chi HQ of London's chattering classes, in 1997 when Tony became prime minister for a paltry £615,000; the house would now be worth at least £2 million. Then there was Cherie's ill-advised attempt at property speculation with her 2002 purchase of two buy-to-let flats in Bristol. She unfortunately, allowed a friend of a friend, who turned out to be a convicted fraudster, to negotiate the prices on her behalf. Not only did this make her look extremely sleazy when the truth came out but, far worse in my eyes, Land Registry figures later revealed he had agreed a price far higher than many of the buyers of neighbouring flats had paid. She was later reported to have had difficulty letting the properties.

This did not stop the Blairs buying a large house in Bayswater, just west of central London, in 2004 for £3.65 million, a price regarded as quite, ahem, toppy at the time. There was speculation about how the couple could afford such a spectacular price but it was soon revealed that they, again, intended to become landlords and the house would bring in a healthy £12,000 a month rent until Tony retired and they were able to occupy it. Except that it lay empty for months and, eventually, when it was let, took a disappointing £8,000 a month.

So, it is perhaps not surprising that the couple should make their most expensive purchase to date in a period when it is almost impossible to shift property.

Recently it was reported that they had paid £4 million for South Pavilion, the former home of John Gielgud, which sits in the lush Buckinghamshire countryside close to the prime ministerial official residence of Chequers.

Not only that, but they apparently offered the price to the vendor before the house was put on the market (thus paying handsomely for it).

It is apparently an enchanting house and I am sure that they will be very happy there but the timing seems a touch unfair on the increasingly beleaguered current PM.

You can almost feel the heat from the small flames of interest that estate agents are currently trying to fan, flicker out entirely as the news of this purchase spreads.

Because, as the British public has learnt over the past decade, when it comes to property, the lesson is to do as the Blairs don't.