Cast you mind back to 2003, the 22nd July to be precise. David Kelly's body had been found in the Oxfordshire countryside, and Tony Blair was flying out to Hong Kong. When questioned by journalists on the flight who asked Why did you authorise the naming of David Kelly?, Blair responded with his typical denial, saying That is completely untrue.

In fact Blair continued for the next two years to deny that he had authorised the naming of David Kelly, instead claiming that the MoD merely confirmed his name once it was already known.

Then comes Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman interviewing Tony Blair. When asked Do you accept any responsibility at all for the death of Dr David Kelly, Blair replied

[His death] was a terrible, terrible thing to have happened. I don't believe we had any option but to disclose his name, because I think had we failed to do so, that would have been seen as attempting to conceal something from the committee that was looking into this at the time.

There you have it, a classic example of the problem faced by the habitual liar, eventually the truth will come out. Blair lied to the media, Dr Kelly's family and the Hutton Inquiry (which more than ever can be seen for the whitewash it was).

Perhaps it's time to rework the old adage, instead of lies, damn lies and statistics a more appropriate version might be lies, damn lies and Tony Blair's pronouncements.

Voting for Labour while Blair still leads the Party seems to me to be no different to being involved in an abusive relationship. After a while people seem to act as if they deserve to be lied to, that it is justifiable treatment for some fault of theirs. Well that isn't the case, unless you let Labour win with a significant majority on the 5th May. But it doesn't have to be that way, you can break the habit and, just possibly, return a modicum of honesty, dignity and accountability to the office of Prime Minister. All it takes is a vote against New Labour for as long as Blair remains in charge.