Blair on Marr

Blair has just been on the Andrew Marr programme. He refused point blank to endorse Brown, but says he will make his views known when the time comes. Much of what he says was sensible: that it is harder to win a fourth term than a first term ("you're not the new kids on the block anymore...you don't have the euphoria.. (instead there is) the wear and tear of government"); that the leadership battle is damaging Labour and that the party needs to "reconnect with the public". Yet it is disingenuous: one would think the succession crisis had nothing whatever to do with him. He refused to answer questions about Cash-for-Peerages. He clearly supports further marketisation of the NHS. He seems to have no regrets (or none he can admit to himself) about Iraq.