Tony Blair has kept his grip on everything but reality

Two salient facts define the national political predicament this autumn. The first is a growing sense of disquiet about Tony Blair. Experts often speak of the lack of ‘trust’ which shows up in opinion polls. But there is more to it than that. People are beginning to sense that there is something rum about this Prime Minister, and that he is no longer quite 16 annas to the rupee.

In the normal course of events this sense of unease might translate into a general election defeat. But this brings me to the second singularity. While distaste for Tony Blair is palpably growing both within the Labour party and elsewhere, there is no agreement at all about an alternative.

The internal opposition to Tony Blair, after a summer of perfervid preparation, elected not to strike. This cowardly, though doubtless wise, decision has left the Prime Minister in place to fight the upcoming general election: that was the political importance of this week’s Labour conference in Brighton.