Tom Richmond: Blair brought to book by an outside observer

So, too, would his key lieutenants Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson – while I'll place a small bet that Gordon Brown is already brooding over what to reveal in his own chronicles which will inevitably seek to denigrate Blair.

Yet they are all over-indulging. They are approaching history from a blinkered viewpoint – their own. They are, or will be, incredibly biased accounts in contrast to the compelling diaries that have been written by the recently retired Labour backbencher Chris Mullin.

Referring to Blair as The Man, the first volume covered his unhappy stint as a junior minister – complete with the broken promises and the efforts he undertook to jettison the Ministerial car that he did not want.

His latest book, Decline & Fall, covers Labour's last term when Mullin was on the backbenches. It is no less revealing, simply because he had this knack of memorising gossip and being prepared to use it because he posed no political threat to the leadership.

Take this one discussion that he enjoyed with Keith Hill, Blair's aide otherwise known as "The Man's Man", in July 2006 about the depressing state of the Afghanistan war.

"In passing Keith, who sits in on Cabinet meetings, remarked how unchallenging they are," discloses the author.

"Discussion is minimal and there is little rigorous questioning. A few months back John Reid (then Defence Secretary) had given a presentation on Afghanistan and there was scarcely any discussion ('although,' says Keith, 'a number of questions occurred to me'). Bruce Grocott (another Blair aide) used to say the same."

What an insult to all those brave soldiers, many from this region, who have paid the ultimate price because of the complacency of supine Ministers.

Then there's the disclosure about the time Blair family visited the nuclear bunker under the Ministry of Defence and how the decor had to be changed because Mrs Blair did not like it, even though the rooms were never going to be used.

I would venture to suggest that these two passages are far more insightful about the Blair government than any of the chapters of self-justification written by the former PM and his many loyalists. Do you agree?

IF Doncaster MP Ed Miliband becomes Labour leader later today, he will come under pressure to confront his domestic circumstances.

His partner is Justine Thornton, a Cambridge-educated barrister. They met in 2004, and live together in north London. They have one son and are expecting their second child later this year.

They have no plans to marry. Yet there will be many traditionalists who believe that Britain is not ready for an unmarried Prime Minister.

I disagree. Edward Heath was a lifelong bachelor and that did not preclude him from becoming PM. Frankly, the only thing that matters is a leader's ability to do the job – and Miliband junior should do what is right for his family rather than the social commentariat.

AS the spectre of rail fares rising by eight per cent dawned while I was contending with the latest aberrations on the under-performing East Coast service, John Redwood, the former Tory Cabinet minister, offered an alternative approach.

"A subsidy reduction programme might act as a stimulus to more enterprise and more efficiency," he said. "At many stations you cannot buy a morning paper or a cup of coffee, cannot have your car cleaned or serviced while away for the day, and cannot buy your supper on the way home at a shop on railway land."

I suggest that Redwood is put in charge of the trains forthwith – given Northern Rail boss Steve Butcher's admission this week that his company is failing its rush-hour passengers – and is challenged to put in place a policy that actually sees fares cut and services improved. He couldn't do any worse than the existing operators.

I HAVE no time for those insubstantial political turncoats (in contrast to the aforementioned Winston Churchill, for example) who cross the floor of the House of Commons without, first, fighting a by-election for their new party.

Equally, those disillusioned Liberal Democrat councillors, like Ben Curran in Sheffield, should undergo a similar electoral test if they choose to change their allegiance. Curran was an elected as a Lib Dem. He should serve a full-term for Nick Clegg's party – or submit himself to a by-election where his

new-found conversion to Labour can be put to the test.

Curran says that "Labour offer the only genuine progressive future for both Sheffield and Britain".

What's progressive about a party that has left Britain mired in debt?

SO much for the smaller government promised by David Cameron. According to Tory blogger Iain Dale, there are 108 ministers, three more than under Labour.

I'm with Dale when he suggests that the number of ministers in each department is cut by one at the next reshuffle. I doubt that anyone will notice any difference.

What is intriguing is how the pay of the PM has fallen in relative terms. Cameron receives 142,500. Yet, in the late 18th century, William Pitt, was paid 5,000 – the equivalent of 600,000 a year in today's money.

AS predicted last week, London Mayor Boris Johnson is already playing financial games ahead of his 2012 re-election campaign.

He has accused Lib Dem Danny Alexander, the Scots-born Chief Secretary to the Treasury, of trying to divert money from the capital to build "more motorways in Scotland".

This is Johnson's way of saying that London is a special case because it is the capital city. Don't say that you weren't warned!