Blair has resigned

(He just don't know it)

Devastingly accurate op-ed piece by Matthew d'Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph pointing out how my country's doyen of denial, the flake Blair

"... became Prime Minister on May 2, 1997 and resigned on September 7, 2006.

Be in no doubt: that was the day on which his premiership ended. During a visit to Quinton Kynaston School in north London, he announced, after a failed but hugely damaging backbench coup, that the forthcoming Labour Party conference would be his last as leader, and, at that moment, power drained from him instantly and irretrievably.

On September 26 in Manchester, he delivered a majestic farewell speech to his assembled party. And that ought to have been that: so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye. It would have been a supremely stylish exit, leaving Labour to agonise over why, precisely, it had driven out the most electorally successful Prime Minister it has ever had. Instead, Mr Blair went back to his desk in Downing Street as if nothing had happened, and resumed business as usual. It was as if he had resigned, but didn't know it.

Since then, the PM has been a political wraith, a spectral presence at an increasingly bloody political feast. He is also the subject of daily impeachment in the court of public opinion. On Friday, in a compelling Today interview with John Humphrys, he put the case for the defence. He was still, he said, enormously busy, and, rather forlornly, listed his daily diary appointments as evidence of his industry and commitment to unfinished business."

And what a lunatic decision by Blair to face Humphrys.

Here's sections - and read Andrew Pierce's killer analyses of the Blair burblings.

How Brown must be gloating.