Straw ditches glasses for lenses

A spectacle-free Jack Straw in Sudan

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has ditched his trademark spectacles in favour of contact lenses.

Mr Straw raised eyebrows during a two-day diplomatic mission to Sudan by surveying the scene at a Darfur refugee camp without his trusty glasses.

An aide said the foreign secretary had been "trying out some vari-focal contact lenses" which work for close-up reading and looking into the distance.

"It is working well, he is enjoying them," the aide added.

"He used to wear lenses when he was younger, but the illness which left him largely deaf in one ear also meant he had problems using lenses and he gave up on them."

"But like a lot of us, he finds it a bit tiresome to be constantly switching from one set of spectacles to another for different visual requirements."

Mr Straw before the switch

Mr Straw has been caricatured by comedian and political satirist Rory Bremner for relying on his specs.

In one sketch he is pictured fumbling for his spectacles in the middle of the night before answering the phone to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In April 2002, the prime minister announced at the London Press Awards that he was starting to wear glasses in public.

He joked that he could see journalists in an "entirely different light".