The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war is a week old and even at this very early stage it appears that its chief victim could be Tony Blair, the man who has so successfully prevented the mud sticking to him hitherto. The questioning may have been gentle, but one after another, the top civil servants of the time have plunged the knife in to the former prime minister, sometimes brutally, sometimes with a surgeon's finesse. Whenever the question of responsibility for the war arose, they were clear that it was not theirs. Which is the constitutional truth. Their duty as civil servants is to execute the policies of the elected government, not, for all the fun and games of Yes, Minister, to thwart them.
Whether or not Tony Blair eventually emerges with the blame he has so long escaped, however, the inquiry is fast producing another candidate for chief loser. This one may be a bit more nebulous than the very distinct figure of our former prime minister. But if anything looks likely to come out of the Iraq inquiry even more sullied than Mr Blair's reputation, it is the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States. If this happens, the implications for British policy and Britain's image of itself would be profound.
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