The return of the Tony Blair Show

The Tony Blair Show was back in town today. The former Prime Minister was clearly less nervous in front of this inquiry than he was in front of Chilcot; there was little of the passion and intensity in his voice that there was that day as he defended his decision to take the country to war. But Iraq, again, provided the most memorable moment of his appearance so far as a protestor burst into the courtroom and accused him of being a ‘war criminal’. (The ease with which security was breached both in Parliament for Murdoch’s select committee appearance and today at Leveson is something that should worry us more than it does.)

On the substance of the inquiry, Blair was predictably smooth. He slipped away from any difficult question in his usual style. He revived his suggestion that news and comment should be more clearly separated — something that sounds reasonable in theory but in practice would lead to dull newspapers which would have little hope of competing with the BBC.

It was also telling how much Leveson asked for Blair’s advice on a system of regulation. From what I’m hearing Leveson and Jay, the inquiry’s QC, are clearly concerned about what possible answer they can give to this question and are looking for guidance. But whether Blair, a former politician, is the right person to give it or not is distinctly debatable.