Blair set to mount spirited defence at Iraq inquiry.

I honestly don't know if I can stomach this. Today, Blair will finally be called before the Chilcot Inquiry and I shudder when I imagine his performance, a performance that I can only predict will be an awful combination of fake charm of forced steeliness.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the ex-PM was expected to say Saddam Hussein had the "capacity and intent" to build weapons of mass destruction.

He added: I'm told that Tony Blair will claim that the fall of Saddam has improved and saved the lives of many Iraqis.

"He'll argue that despite the terrible bloodshed since, it has been worth it for Iraq and the world as a whole.

To listen to this man telling us that the Iraq war was actually a good thing will drive me nuts, but I know that's what he is going to do. What choice does he have? His entire reputation is tied to this war and he has convinced himself that this war was a good and noble venture, so we can expect nothing else.

Mr Blair's biographer, Anthony Seldon, said: "It's a pivotal day for him, for the British public and for Britain's moral authority in the world."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who will shortly face a grilling by the inquiry himself, said he was not concerned about Mr Blair's appearance before it.

He told Sky News: "Tony Blair is able to set out the case, to show the decisions he made, and to do so in the most professional and eloquent way, and I believe that he will be able to answer all the questions that the inquiry puts to him."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who opposed the war, writing in an article for Friday's Daily Telegraph, said Mr Blair's appearance would be "a pivotal moment in answering a question millions of British people are still asking themselves: Why did we participate in an illegal invasion of another country?"

He said the invasion of Iraq was an example of "subservience by default to the White House" which raised wider questions about the "special relationship" between Britain and America.

It still staggers me that anyone can be so devoid from reality that they can stand up in public and defend this war, especially now that we know it was launched with most of the Foreign Office telling them it was illegal under international law.

But Blair's greatest quality whilst in office was his ability to convince himself that he sincerely believed whatever pap he was at any given moment espousing.

Today he is going to give us that in spades.

I can only imagine that it will be will be vomit inducing.

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Tags: Blair, Chilcot Inquiry, Iraq war