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AN honest and rigorous debate of real issues was a rare treat here.

Tom Bower (biographer of Tony Blair and author of Broken Vows?) set out Blair’s time in government, based, he claims, on a lack of knowledge and an arrogant dismissal of informed views in opposition to his instinct.

It was this instinct which drove Blair’s actions towards an unpopular war in Iraq, and disastrous intervention in health and education services.

Nick Davies, author of Hack Attack, was forthright in his challenge of Bower’s account, which needed to be considered in the context of the political times in which Blair came to power. He brazenly asked the audience to admit whether they had voted for Blair in 1997 (more than two-thirds had) and whether they would do so tomorrow (two hands).

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas also insisted a balanced perspective must account for Blair’s achievements in, for example, Northern Ireland. She proposed an insightful view on "the visceral loathing" for Blair: our intense sense of betrayal today is disproportionate, she suggests, and lies in the dashed hope that in 1997, after the Thatcher years, there was a chance to get it right - only replaced by a wounded sense of missed opportunity.