Background: In 2003, Blair's official spokesman Tom Kelly attempted to smear the deceased Dr David Kelly, claiming that he had been a "Walter Mitty" character. It then transpired that Tony Blair had made demonstrably fanciful claims about his past. In a radio interview in 1997, he claimed to have watched his "teenage hero" Jackie Milburn of Newcastle United from behind the goal at St James's Park. Milburn left Newcastle when Blair was 4 years old, and there were no seats behind the goals until the Nineties. Blair told Des O'Connor that he stowed away at Newcastle Airport on a flight to the Bahamas, at the age of 14. At that time, there were no flights from Newcastle to the Bahamas...

A Walter Mitty Prime Minister - who perceives non-existent flights, alternative history soccer clubs, and dire WMD threats from defenceless Third World countries - might imagine a ballistic missile attack. Although some of the tales are amusing, this is hardly the ideal character to be trusted with a finger on the nuclear button.