Blair is right about prison sentences. But the culprit is the man he sees in the mirror

Perhaps the most bizarre spectacle in the dying days of Tony Blair’s time in No. 10 Downing Street has been the way in which he has joined protests and campaigns as if, somehow, he were not running the country. Last month, he signed a petition effectively demanding that the Prime Minister — that Mr Blair — give scientists better protection against animal rights activists. But nowhere is his sense of exasperation and helplessness more acute than in his one-man campaign against judges who hand down lenient sentences.

Last summer, he sternly warned judges that ‘the rules of the game are changing’ after the 7 July attacks and that they had to get tougher on suspected terrorists. When nine Afghan hijackers were allowed to stay in Britain after taking their plane to Stansted airport, Mr Blair declared the verdict an ‘abuse of common sense’. Once again, the foolish judiciary had struck. The Sun newspaper’s current campaign against soft judges is being followed with enthusiastic interest in No.