Tony Blair is in political, rather than lessons learned, mode

It’s sepulchral in the room itself. Reg Keys, sitting in the second row, stares grimly at the TV screen of Blair’s face unflinchingly.

Mr Blair’s bodyguards – one standing, one sitting – stare out at the public. Mr Blair himself often seems to be in political more than “lessons learned” inquiry mode.

As Sir Roderic read out his 10-minute summary of the existing legal position, Tony Blair scribbled furiously on his file notes, flicking backwards and forwards in a file that bulges with legal and government document photocopies – I could see lots of marginalia and triple underlining.

In the end, the legal section presented him with little difficulty.

At the end of this latest session, Mr Blair admitted that the problems of al-Qaida marching into Iraq (and the collapse of the Iraqi civil service ) were the main problems we failed to identify and that if the US or anyone else goes into a country again for similar reasons in the future they should go fully equipped to do confident nation-building and expect the worst in terms of al-Qaida or other similar forces doing their best to frustrate things.