Quote of the day

From The Times (here):

Mark Durkan (SDLP, Foyle) even mocked what should be regarded as one of Mr Blair’s achievements. “This is not a day for soundbites,” he said, echoing Mr Blair’s comment at the Good Friday agreement. “But does the prime minister not agree that the hand of history should be feeling someone’s collar?”

Almost a century ago, contemplating the senseless waste of human life, lions led by donkeys, Kipling wrote in his Epitaphs of the War: “If any question why we died/ Tell them: because our fathers lied.”

What will be Mr Blair’s epitaph? Perhaps six words that he wrote in July 2002 to George W Bush: “I will be with you, whatever.” It was Mr Bush’s 70th birthday yesterday. No one asked Mr Blair what he had given his friend as a present but the answer was clear: his reputation.