Tony Blair’s attack on the media may or may not be fair. But it does illustrate an iron law of British politics. All prime ministers end up fearing and hating the press.

The first time I interviewed Blair – shortly after he became PM in 1997 – he made rather a point of underlining that he was going to avoid this particular pitfall. I remember him saying with a laugh that his predecessor – John Major – had been so obsessive about the newspapers that he had anxiously checked the first editions at 11 at night. "I don’t bother with all that," said Blair with an airy laugh.

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