Two days ago the bipartisan Iraq Study Group brought out a hard hitting report about the mess that Iraq is in and included 79 recommendations to the crisis. Its opening words "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating" set the tone of what was to follow. Yesterday chief cheerleader Tony Blair joined George Bush in a news conference; gone were the usual swaggers, instead they looked ill at ease and I was pleased to see the camera come in close when they were subjected to some uncomfortable questioning from the BBC's Nick Robinson. This has been well reported in Nick's own blog (there's a surprise!) and in the "Blairwatch" blog. Plenty of comments on these two blogs with the great majority praising Robinson's efforts.

Unsurprisingly although broadly supportive of the ISG report - they couldn't do much else - they are presently stalling for time. One of the report's more controversial suggestions is to have some sort of dialogue with Syria and Iran. I wouldn't be surprised if the UK got involved with some quiet diplomacy with Syria at least. We shall see!