'I do not regret close relationship with Bush'

Mork and Mindy had their final press conference in Washington yesterday with Blair insisting that he had been right to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the US and with Bush admitting - for the first time - that Blair's decision to attach his truck to Bush's bandwagon may have been the thing that cost him his Premiership.

Mr Bush winked at a British reporter who had asked whether the president was responsible for Mr Blair's resignation. "I haven't polled the Labour conference, but ... could be."

He added: "The question is, am I to blame for his leaving? I don't know."

And, at a time when the British are asking why Blair is remaining in office when Brown has already been chosen as his successor, Bush mouthed a line that was obviously handed to him by Downing Street, so clearly did it align itself with the arguments that have been made recently by Blair's supporters:

"My attitude is this: This man here is the prime minister. We've got a lot of work to do until he finishes. He's going to sprint to the wire," said Mr Bush.

"Sprint to the wire" was the exact phrase that Downing Street used yesterday to explain that Blair wasn't a lame duck Prime Minister. So Bush has, at last, given Blair some reward for his loyalty, even as he admits that this loyalty has possibly cost the Prime Minister his job. Just as loyalty to the Toxic Texan cost the jobs of both Berlusconi of Italy and Aznar of Spain. Blair now joins the long list of people brought low because he bought into the neo-con world view and the disasters that this has unleashed.

Blair and Bush both seemed preoccupied with the fact that their time in power is fast running out.

But for all the efforts of British and US officials to turn the talk towards climate change and trade, Mr Blair and Mr Bush and everyone on the folding chairs in the White House rose garden knew that this was the end. It was the last time the two men would stand at their twin podiums, shoulder to shoulder in the war against terror. Last night was the last they would spend sitting out on the Truman balcony talking about, Mr Bush said, world affairs. It was Mr Blair's first - indeed only - sleep-over at the White House. Both men struggled valiantly to describe this last encounter as a working meeting. But the sentiment kept seeping back in, as they exchanged repeated sidelong glances, and copious praise. Mr Bush said he honoured Mr Blair and described him as a man of courage.

Blair decided to go out in a blaze of glory apologising for nothing and proclaiming that all that he had done - indeed, the very things that had brought his Premiership crashing around his ankles - had all been the right things to do.

Mr Blair denied harbouring any regrets for his decision to support Mr Bush in the war on Iraq. "It's not about us remaining true to the course that we've set out because of the alliance with America," he said. "It's about us remaining steadfast because what we are fighting, the enemy we are fighting, is an enemy that is aiming its destruction at our way of life."

This is, of course, the most fantastic nonsense. The enemy we face may blow up our trains or attack our buildings but they cannot destroy "our way of life" as Bush and Blair constantly claim. Our way of life lies within our laws and our customs, they are not things that can be blown up or destroyed unless we decide to destroy them.

And there are few people on earth who have done more damage to "our way of life" than Bush and Blair by suspending Habeas Corpus. The laws and customs by which we have defined our civilisation have been suspended by these two men, as if they are somehow inappropriate for the times in which we live, so it's a bit rich for these two to preach to anyone about saving "our way of life".

Nonetheless, this is Tony's last trip to the US, and he has risked so much for this friendship that it can hardly surprise anyone that - as he takes his final bow - he murmurs "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien".

He has no choice. He played the hand that he was dealt. However, watching him standing there, and knowing the great achievements he has had as Prime Minister, one couldn't help feeling that - had Al Gore won in 2000 - we would now be talking about this man as one of Labour's greatest ever leaders.

Watching him standing next to that smirking Frat Boy, I can't help thinking that, in the wee small hours of the morning, Blair must wonder what might have been?

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Tags: Blair, Bush, Iraq war, war on terror