I come not to bury Caeser

NO ifs and buts, no personal regrets on my part, but it is undeniably true that the Labour Party will miss Tony Blair.

He's a three times winner, the first in Labour's history. Could he have won a fourth term? Who knows, but I somehow doubt it. It's like puzzling over whether Maggie could have won a fourth term if pigmy Tory MPs hadn't knifed her in the back.

Gordon Brown will inherit the mantle, with Labour deeply unpopular, and June 27 is the date set for the handover of power. It'll be a long goodbye, saying farewell to the nation and the world. He wasn't voted out by his own party as was Mrs T, but hisnd was hastened by his own ill-judged decision to announce his resignation years in advance. It unsettled the party and in the end the mood for change was more than Blair could resist.

Just as the Tories missed Thatcher, so Labour will miss Blair and look back with fondness on a golden era which may never, ever be replicated.