Update: For early reactions to Blair at the Iraq inquiry, read this post from the ftdotcomment blog.

5.16pm: That’s it from me and Alex. I think Blair had the better of this: a refined defence and one, says former Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell, that was aimed at his legacy.

Some of those who heard him will be far from happy, particularly at his decision not to voice regret. Sky reporting Blair was jeered as he left the inquiry: “You are a liar,” shouted one person. “A murderer,” shouted another. Those who wanted to hear regret, says the BBC’s Nick Robinson, will be disappointed.

5.14pm: Well, there you have it. He’s sorry – for being divisive – but firmly believes the war was right. Sure, some things could have been done better (the intel and the planning), but with or without WMD, toppling Saddam was the right thing to do. We’d all be worse off if he was still there, not least because of the growing threat from Iran.

2.56pm: OK, we’ve slowed the refresh time on the post and will set up a new window for rest of coverage. Should make it easier to read. Give us a minute. Click here to read Live blog: Tony Blair at the Iraq inquiry – part 2.

2.54pm: Blair says what he needed to know from him [Goldsmith] in the end was what was his conclusion? Was this lawful? “Incidentally, he wasn’t alone in international law for coming to that conclusion. As I say, if you read 1441, it was pretty clear this was Saddam’s last chance.”

2.52pm Classic politician’s trick from Blair: how can you not believe me? “When you go back and read 1441, it’s pretty obvious you can make a decent case for this,” he says, inviting agreement. Sir Rod will not be drawn. “Let me not pass judgment on this. I’m asking questions. I don’t have an opinion to state on this.”

Pensioner poverty has fallen by nearly a million under Labour, says the ONS

“Learn to laugh at yourself” and “control aggression”: Anti-stress advice to Treasury officials.

Ben Brogan on how Lady Ashcroft spotted Cameron’s talents in 2005.

Geoff Hoon is worried that his local party activists will oust him ahead of the general election as punishment for his useless coup against Gordon Brown. I’m not sure he should be.

Labour people in Ashfield have been complaining about the former defence secretary for weeks, with rumbling about a deselection.

However, the timing is all a bit skew-whiff, from what I can work out.

1] They need to pass a local vote against their MP, which is not guaranteed to pass (surely some of them dislike Gordon Brown?) Even councillor Steve Carroll, who has been quoted everywhere criticising Hoon, tells me that he just wants the MP to come back to Ashfield and apologise to his comrades.

“We’re in a void where we haven’t really heard from Geoff,” he said. “If he appeared before local party members and showed some leadership in the constituency I think it would clear it.”

2] They then need to pass the motion on to the Labour NEC (national executive committee). The NEC only meets every two months and gathered yesterday. I’m told it wouldn’t want to deselect an established MP at the end of March, just before the general election.

3] In extremis the local party could pass a motion of reselection to the NEC without a vote. But they would, again, still have to wait until late March for an NEC vote.

If Hoon doesn’t fight the general election it will probably be because he doesn’t want to spend the next five years as a backbencher.

The deputising Harriet Harman slipped in a neat riposte to William Hague during PMQs when she said: “His reversing is even worse than mine” – a reference to her spot of bother down in Peckham a few weeks back. Clearly she thought she should make the joke before Hague did.

She was less sure-footed when David Jones, a Tory MP, quoted the famous Mandelson quote about Labour being “intensely relaxed” about people getting “filthy rich”. In this light how did she feel about the commercial success of the former PM – ie Tony Blair?

Harman’s reply – something about Labour standing for social mobility – was treated with more than a little scepticism. Blair’s origins were far from humble; he was born into a comfortable family and studied at Fettes and Oxford.

As Andrew Grice points out: even the Labour front bench were laughing.

Former legal adviser at the Foreign Office believed the Iraq invasion would be illegal

But don’t expect a smoking gun this week, argues Philip Stephens

UK economy out of recession: growth of 0.1 per cent in last quarter of 2009

Could the election come earlier than May? Adam Boulton asks the question

A reader calls to point out that Motorway Man even has his own theme tune.

Written by Sleeper, the b-tier indie band from the early 1990s, it describes him appearing “slow-faced worn and weary,” which isn’t very flattering I suppose.

Singer Louise Wener, pictured, is now a successful novelist.

Trying to label the vital voters who make all the difference in a close-run general election is not always easy.

But a new demographic character called “Motorway Man” has been defined by Rob Hayward (you may remember the ever-wise Hayward told you about the potential clash between football fixtures and the election TV debate long before it made the news this weekend).

Motorway Man is an aspirational character, maybe a sales rep or similar, who typically lives in a new housing estate on an “infill” former mining area near to a motorway. He used to vote Labour – or his parents did – but is now a Tory. The critical point is that these areas have been growing, population-wise, faster than the rest of the country.

If you think this sounds tenuous, we ran a graphic in Friday’s FT showing the 21 marginal constituencies which lay along just three motorways; M6, M1 and M61. They include Morley & Outwood, which is being contested by Ed Balls, education secretary.

Even Peter Hain recognises the existence of this new character. “Labour can no longer depend on the old basis of its appeal – a deep almost cultural attachment in mining communities,” the Welsh secretary told me in an interview last week.

“People are now working in more diverse jobs, often travelling, in a way they never did before. There are new housing estates everywhere.”

Speaking of swing seats, the News of the World has a poll* today suggesting a 38-seat majority for the Tories – based on an 8.5 per cent swing in key marginals. Labour may take some solace from the fact aht nearly 80 per cent of those polled thought Gordon Brown was “trying to do a good job in difficult circumstances”.

As Fraser Nelson puts it:

“Cameron looks set to pull off the biggest pro-Tory swing since 1935 – yet may still have barely enough MPs to pass laws. A majority of 38 means it would take just 20 disgruntled Tories to defeat the government. Or hold Cam to ransome.”

UPDATE

To listen to Philip Gould debate Motorway Man with Haywood here is Saturday’s Today programme, which I had missed.

* Ignore the idea that Alistair Darling will lose his seat. Of course it is not impossible. But straight Labour-Tory opinion polls don’t really work in Scotland, where the Conservatives are less popular and the SNP wins many votes.

Tories back off from plans to give Sir Richard Dannatt a peerage and job as defence minister

Lord Mandelson explains how he bought his abode: “If you ask me whether I would rather have my nice terraced house…or have my mother still alive today, I would prefer my mother still to be alive”.

Alistair Darling remains cool on Obama plans to separate bank functions