So, Blair is giving the profits from his autobiography to the Royal British Legion.

I approve.

This welcome gesture will boost sales of his Journey.

I imagine lots of people, me included, would have gagged at adding to Blair’s millions and would never have countenanced buying the book. Now they can, with a clear conscience.

Whether it will be worth the money is quite another matter.

I recall Sir Christopher Meyer, appointed by Blair to be British Ambassador in Washington, being vilified for publishing his kiss and tell DC Confidential.

Baron Prescott fumed about his memoirs being “tittle tattle”. Jack Straw blew a gasket, condemning Meyer for breaking confidences.

Meyer took it all on the chin, mounted a spirited fightback and reportedly gave away the £250,000 he got for his serial indiscretions.

Meyer did, nevertheless, hold some things back. On page 238 he tells us he “had a handful of especially important contacts in the higher eschelons of the US administration. They were also personal friends. The history is too recent for me to name them. They were loyal and patriotic servants committed to carrying out the President’s policies.”

So what is Blair going to hold back? Quite a lot, I imagine.

He is not going to give us a blow by blow account of what happened in Crawford, Texas when he and Dubya decided to topple Saddam.

I suspect Blair’s tome will be, in part, an apologia for Iraq with few fresh insights and also a guide to “non ideological”, “we do what works” government. This was his thing.

Elsewhere… I notice that Sir Jeremy Greenstock is now publishing his own account of the Iraq imbroglio, the Cost of War: Iraq and the Paradox of Power. It is out in December.

Previous attempts by our former man in Baghdad to publish his version of events were blocked by the then Foreign Secretary, our old friend Jack Straw.

Jack, I dare say, is now working on his own memoirs.