Iain, if it’s accurate, that post on EU Referendum is devastating. Tony Blair’s fans over here (there aren’t any left anywhere else) can choose to believe what they want about the prime minister’s supposed steadfastness, but the fact of the matter is that, for years now, his government has deliberately deprived Britain’s armed forces of the financial and material resources it needs, something that that has had lethal consequences for the UK’s troops in southern Afghanistan. Now we may be discovering that British servicemen have not only been denied the equipment they need to get the job done off the coast of Iraq too, but the authority too.

The political consequences of this mess are, to say the least, ugly. Not only have the Iranians been handed fifteen fresh bargaining chips (which is the last thing the West needed to happen at this particular point) but Tony Blair now has a major additional problem when it comes to defending the UK’s continued presence in Iraq. To fight an unpopular war is, politically speaking, difficult enough, to fight it incompetently is, well, …