Tony Blair is too good for British politics

Tony Blair was the headline act at his day-long talking-shop in London yesterday. The crowds attending the Future of Britain Conference had to sit through hours of speeches and panel discussions before the old groover himself popped up at 4pm for a 30-minute chat with Jon Sopel.

‘I’m so grateful to everyone for hanging about to wait for me,’ he quipped. And he admitted that he’d suffered a wobble the previous night:

‘There was a time in the early hours when I thought, God, another of your bright ideas.’

Blair showed little appetite for a personal return to Westminster. He seems to be enjoying himself too much

Who did he mean by God? Not himself, surely. Sopel raised the issue that obsesses many fretful centrists: Will Blair rescue the country by starting a new party?

‘There are two main parties in Britain,’ he said, ‘I don’t see that changing.’