Blair is already thinking about when to go. Summer might be a good time

Everyone knows that moment in the Bugs Bunny cartoons when the rabbit dashes over the cliff. For a few moments the creature remains aloft, suspended in space, little legs busily pumping away. Then he makes the mistake of looking down, realises the gravity of his predicament, and starts to plunge precipitously downwards.

Tony Blair is over the edge, and about to begin his descent. There is neither direction nor purpose in Downing Street. Above all there is no political will. Poor Blair has reached the status of a posthumous prime minister. The EU referendum shambles was one example of this terrifying drift, Tuesday’s panicky speech on immigration another. As ever it was driven by short-term terrors — in this case the accession of central European countries to the EU on Monday. Tony Blair resorted to his exhausted Third-Way formula — no open door, but no fortress Britain either — but that rhetorical device is no longer any use.