The frustrations of a Blair press conference

By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

There were journalists in Tony Blair's latest press conference virtually chewing their own limbs off in frustration.

After last month's "no comment" conference, things appeared to have got worse.

Blair wants to get back to domestics

Any questions related to the Hutton inquiry, no matter how loosely, were rejected out of hand.

Indeed, at one point the prime minister said he would not answer one specific question because then he would have to answer all the others.

And his blanket refusal to be drawn on what is without any doubt the most serious issue currently facing the government even included what must be one of the most general questions of principle any prime minister can be asked.

He had told Lord Hutton that he accepted responsibility for the production of the Iraq dossier and the process which led to the naming of Dr David Kelly.

Take blame

In other words, as must be the case with all prime ministers, the buck always stops with him.

Did that therefore mean - as most people would reasonably expect from the premier - that he would also take the blame?

No, he wasn't having that one.

Could he then please explain how he could tell Hutton he was responsible for the process which led to Dr Kelly's naming after he had previously told journalists - with some passion - that he had nothing at all to do with it.

No, he wasn't having that one either.

OK, what about the revelation that senior intelligence service members had indeed been deeply concerned about the way the dossier was being compiled.

Forget it.

Domestic issues

Now all this might be understandable, even reasonable. Lord Hutton will eventually produce his conclusions and it would be sensible for us all to wait just a bit longer without the prime minister having to give a ball-by-ball commentary.

Except for the fact that Lord Hutton's conclusions may well not address some of the wider Iraq war issues - that is not what Mr Blair asked him to do.

And there are fears that, when Lord Hutton does pronounce, that will also be used by the prime minister to reject questions on the grounds they have been answered by the inquiry.

But, for the umpteenth time, Tony Blair was determined to put these issues to one side and to get back onto the domestic agenda - the issues he believes will decide the outcome of the next election.

Even here there were frustrations when he attempted to walk the tightrope between a pledge to go out and listen to people's concerns - on tuition fees, public services and so on - while also insisting he was not for turning.

Next month

Asked if he could give a single example of where he had previously gone out and listened to people and then changed his mind, he struggled.

Then light dawned. "Well yes, the 75p pension increase."

Trouble here of course is that it was Chancellor Gordon Brown's mind he changed over that one.

Meanwhile there was more of the shifting over why he went to war on Iraq and whether he believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction which posed an imminent threat.

Of the half dozen or so questions about the justification for the war, he only once mentioned WMD preferring to concentrate on the removal of Saddam which, of course, was not the reason given before the war - probably because it would have been illegal.

Oh well, there's always next month.