The Foreign Secretary

was on the radio this morning.

I am used to inept performances from labour minsters, and perhaps I was spoiled by the relative competence that Jack Straw displayed in the role, but even allowing for the fact Blair is clueless on the issue, she was poor. Indeed, a smart politician might decide it's time to show leadership on the issue.

Not our Margaret. She said, with Jim Hacker-like comedy, the situation was "serious" She couldn't bring herself to blame the Israelis for anything at all. "Have the Israelis over-reacted?" she was asked "I think Hizbollah have over-reacted" (true but not the question). Are the Israelis in breach of international law? Mrs B didn't think the question was relevant or helpful ! But it was clearly a "serious" situation she reiterated sounding funnier all the time.

Don't you think that Arabs might reasonably conclude that we are treating the two sides differently? Mrs B didn't think that was what Arabs might think!

Mightn't this be a recruiting point for Al Qaiada in Iraq? "Oh" she said indignantly, "I wondered how long it would be before you dragged that into it" in the manner of a woman whose birthday you had forgotten; she displayed anger and irritation, even petulence, but not leadership, much less a lucid grasp of the issues, or any idea how it might end.

It was an inept, clueless display of a person in way out of their depth. You could only conclude after listening to this, that this particular Margaret, might be better, spending a lot, lot more time with her caravan.

Though, Ehud Olmert is almost as bad, turning a minor crisis (the kidnap of one soldier) into a two front war, in just over a week, takes a special kind of stupidity. I think Hizbollah were just after attention, as Hamas were getting it all.

If you want to hear the often hard, unpalatable truth on the issue, listen to Wally (Walid) Jumblatt, leader of a Lebanese Druze faction ~ a real tough, intelligent, pragmatic guy. Now him as foreign secretary ??