Scene 1: The year is 2010. A hacienda in San Clemente, California. Tony Blair is giving a series of interviews to Sir David Frost. This is the final day.
Frost: Looking back over your last year in office, Mr Blair, do you feel you ever obstructed justice or were part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice?
Blair: Look, we've been over this, and, you know, I really don't care if you believe me or not, but I happen to be telling the truth. I cooperated with the police. Far from obstructing justice - I was facilitating it.
Frost: But according to Sir Kenneth MacDonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, you were desperately trying to contain or block the investigation. In fact, he made a tape of your conversation on 2 March 2007.
Blair: That's . . . now hang on . . . that tape is inconclusive.
Frost: Yes, because 18 and a half minutes of that conversation have mysteriously been erased.
Blair: That's as may be, but Sir Kenneth - or Lord MacDonald, as he is now - is a conscientious note-taker and his notes are there for all to see.
Frost: Well, we found something rather better than his notes. [Produces documents from his briefcase.] This is a transcript of a conversation you had with Lord Goldsmith on 1 March 2007.
Blair [startled]: Well, I haven't seen that. You can't expect me to comment on something -
Frost: But these are your words, Mr Blair. Quote: "This whole investig ation rests unless someone in my office decides to talk." Quote: "How much will it cost to buy Levy's silence?" Quote: "What about one of Cherie's flats in Bristol?" It seems to me that someone running a cover-up couldn't have expressed it more clearly.
Blair [starting to sweat]: That's out of context.
Frost: Let me put it another way. If Lord Levy really was acting on his own initiative, why didn't you call the police and have him arrested? Blair: I've always maintained that what he was doing - what we were all doing - was not illegal. When you're in office, you have to do a lot of things that are not, in the strictest sense of the word, legal. But you do them because they're in the greater interests of the nation.
Frost: Wait a minute. Did I hear you right? Are you saying that the prime minister can decide whether it's in the best interest of the nation to do something illegal?
Blair: I'm saying that when the prime minister does it, that means it's not illegal.
Frost [leaning forward]: So, in that case . . . will you accept, then . . . to clear the air once and for all . . . that you did break the law?
A shadow passes over Blair's face. The haunted look that dogged him during his final 12 months in office has returned. Enter John Birt, Blair's chief-of-staff.
Birt: Okay, let's take a break.
Scene 2: Twenty minutes later.
Frost: We were talking about your final months in office, Mr Blair. About the mistakes you'd made, and so on. I'm wondering . . . would you go further than "mistakes"? The word seems not enough for people to understand.
Blair: Well, how would you express it?
Frost [casting his clipboard aside]: I think there are three things that the British people want to hear. One is, there was probably more than mistakes . . . there was wrongdoing - it may have been a crime, too. Secondly, I did abuse the power I had as prime minister. And, thirdly, by clinging on to office, I put the people through a year of agony and I apologise for that.
Blair: You have to remember, it was a very difficult time. There was the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, I was facing a partisan media . . . [He tails off, but catches himself] But yes, I have to admit, there were times I did not fully live up to the . . . I was involved in a "cover up", as you put it. And for all those mistakes, I have a very deep regret. I still insist they were mistakes of the head, not mistakes of the heart. But I don't blame anyone else. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in. And they twisted it with relish.
Frost: And the British people?
Blair: I let them down. I let down my friends. I let down the country. Worst of all, I let down our system of government and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but now think it's too corrupt. When I came into office, I wanted to prove the cynics wrong, but I ended up proving them right - and I'll have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life.
Frost: Thank you, President Nix - I mean, Mr Blair.
With apologies to Peter Morgan, author of "Frost/Nixon"
