Mr Blair’s final magic trick will begin shortly  

The next five years will be the most important of Tony Blair’s premiership. I wish I could tell you that this insight came to me while watching Newsnight, or reading The Economist or something. But I am afraid it occurred to me while watching the magician Derren Brown perform a trick with a briefcase.

For some time now I’ve found it useful to think of successful politicians as people who tell tales. Yes, yes, I know you do too, but I don’t mean it in that way. I mean that the best way for a politician to describe what they stand for is for them to relate their ideas in the form of a story.