There's no backing out now, Tony

TONIGHT'S the night. The Queen, safely returned from Jamestown and Washington, will meet Tony Blair at Buckingham Palace when he will tell her of his intention to quit as Labour leader and trigger a contest for his successor.

Not that Her Majesty will be surprised - no doubt they've already had private chats for months about his impending resignation, but this will put it on a formal basis.

The Queen's been through this before on a number of occasions before, starting in 1955 when Sir Winston Churchill finally realised he couldn't go on forever and reluctantly resigned to make way for Sir Anthony Eden. (That the dashing boy wonder went on to make such a pig's ear of his chance is another matter).

In those days, of course, the Tories didn't go in for leadership contests - the wise ones in grey suits instructed the Queen who to apppoint as Premier and she did as she was told.

Tomorrow Tony will go to Trimdon in his Sedgefield constituency and tell his supporters that they won't have to put up with him for much longer. There'll be tears of course. The ex-miners of County Durham won't want a Scot becoming Prime Minister - just remember our last proper Scottish PM, Sir Alex Douglas-Home?