The inquisition

As the old cliche goes, a week is a long time in politics, so it's at the risk of seeming woefully behind the times that I feel compelled to share my thoughts on Thursday's special edition of 'Question Time' featuring the three party leaders.

Michael Howard came in for some fierce criticism for the Tory policies on tax and immigration, and also underlined his party's nonsensical position on Iraq - he claimed Tony Blair took us to war on false evidence and is thus a liar, and yet was still happy to concede that the Tories would have done the same thing had they been in power.

Charles Kennedy, up first, had an easier ride, and came across as relaxed, focused and breezily confident of his party's chances of making significant gains.

But the real interest was in the final third of the show, when Blair came up against an onslaught from the studio audience, the savagery of which surprised even me. Iraq was the most contentious issue, and Blair was very evidently uncomfortable fielding questions and points about his decision. For a man widely expected to be leading his party into an historic third term in office, he looked remarkably beleaguered, able to say little more in his defence than that he had acted in "good faith".

On the question of trust and leadership, his mantra was "Well, you're going to have to decide". Thanks for that, Tone, I think we already knew that much. As defences go, it was hardly robust.

His eyes visibly lit up when talk turned away from Iraq and towards home affairs, but even then he found himself lost for words when told about the way the new system for getting doctors' appointments within 48 hours is working in practice.

All in all it was, I thought, a very shaky performance from a man who, in the world of glib political rhetoric, is a consummate professional.