He could look for new ideas, invent new issues, try to play Disraeli to Mr Blair's Gladstone.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

Gladstone, Mr Bogdanor declares, saw Britain not as a single nation, but as a partnership of four nations.

ECONOMIST: Ireland and Gladstone and all that

Despite his failure ever to meet Gladstone, Mr Bognador draws heavily on the Old Man's philosophy to argue that Tony Blair's recent transformation of the British constitution is more likely to strengthen the union than to break it apart.

ECONOMIST: Ireland and Gladstone and all that