Whither Tony Blair? Every now and again, the guru appears in public to make a confused, glassy-eyed statement, regurgitating half-remembered platitudes and memories. Blair has always been vaguely incoherent when not scripted, the structure of his speech resembling a stream of consciousness rather than an argument.

Here he is, recounting his glory days as “that bastard”:

There are two types of politics on the left – one is what I’d call the culture of protest and the other is the culture of government. I’m the face on the placard. I’m that bastard, let’s get rid of him. The other culture is the guys holding the placard. They don’t really want to be in power, they want to make the people in power respond to their concerns. It’s a different culture. These two different cultures are trying to cohabit in the same organisation. I don’t see how these two cultures cohabit, because the guy holding the placard hates the guy whose face is on the placard.