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THURSDAY 3 JULY: Dear Leader back looking tanned but not especially relaxed. The end of the world, Armaggeddon and so forth. It must all be weighing on his shoulders. He did a little quiet determination with his chin; this normally suits him but it didn't really come off. He was asking us to judge him on what he was going to achieve not on what he was going to say. But as he admitted to President Bush he's "Just Talk Tony".

"How are you going to make Iraq less of a mess?' was one good question without an answer. "We've heard it all before," another Arab journalist said, "it's all talk, talk, talk." Not much of a question you might think, but it worked in the context.

From one of our lot: "If we've been so reasonable and moderate why do so many think we've not been even-handed?' There was no answer to that. Presiding over a civil war in Iraq, and a Come On If Yer Ard Enough campaign in Afghanistan gives democracy a bad name, many think.

"Why don't you call for an immediate ceasefire?' was asked in plain simplicity. His complex answer was very unclear. If they haven't been giving Israel the green light (indignantly denied) there's only one possible reason: none of the combatants would pay any attention. It's a perfectly good reason, in fact.

Is there any overlap between the "arc of extremism" and the "axis of evil"? That had a satirical twang

How about cabinet solidarity? "The idea that Margaret Beckett and I are at odds is complete rubbish. We are as one." That produced a mental image we could have done without.

Iran has been "deeply unhelpful" with the one-state solution they promulgated this morning. This is achieved by eliminating Israel. It's more of a no-state solution, strictly speaking. The PM makes a perfectly good point when he accuses the media of imbalance. If anyone had called for the elimination of Syria the media would be "tearing the house down". President Ahmadinejad has the licence to say the most extraordinary things without attracting the wrath and scorn of decent liberals. Nuclear genocide is a piquant blend of human rights and environmental crime – you'd think it would get more of a reaction. But President Ahmadiwhatnot's point does remain important: not everybody wants the two-state solution that the imperial powers say is the only solution.

"We can't do this without the support of the Arab world," the PM said (but Iranians aren't Arabs). "The answer lies in a different vision of the Middle East." It's the Specsavers solution. But maybe they don't see it like that over there?

It is a fiendish trap for western democratic politicians.

Hamas is a democratic government, democratically committed to wiping Israel off the face of the earth. Hizbollah is in the Lebanese cabinet. Sovereign states Syria and Iran are supplying the militia with arms and money (boo!); Britain and America are supplying Israel (hooray!). Disproportion here, 2,000 rockets there. Iraq. Afghanistan. And any solution to the impenetrable, intractable problem has to start with the words "When Moses".

What is Blair to do? How will it end, his moral mission to bring democracy to the world?

"I believe we have to bring people together." But not, I suggest, so close that they can start punching each other. Because if they can, they will.

3 AUGUST 2006: That cabinet minister who passed Blair a note during the session when they were discussing the Middle East, last week? Blair was explaining why he wasn't calling for an immediate ceasefire. The note reportedly said, "Don't take my silence for consent." What delicacy! What restraint! What sheer, shivering gutlessness! 

And then imagine the minister reporting it back to journalists. And then having boasted (he or she thought the story was to his or her credit) presumably adding the words: "But that's off the record. Don't quote me. By name. You won't quote me by name, will you?'

Of course, the cards won't work either, according to the people charged with introducing them (helpful leak from the Home Office). 

3 AUGUST 2006: Tom Kelly (PM's official spokesman) was getting exasperated at the back of the press conference, towards the end. There must have been a meeting getting urgent out the back. "How many more questions shall I take?" the PM asked.

"Two more!" Kelly called out authoritatively. It was an unusual exclamation for him, he's a cool customer. The I'm-not-being-pushed-about-by-staff PM took four more questions.

The Guardian had asked whether it was true that nobody agreed with him in his Middle East call, even the tea lady? Was it not true that officials were telling him to do something very different?

The PM said he and the Foreign Secretary were of one mind but that it would be ambitious to suggest that everyone in the Foreign Office agreed with him. It seems that officials are throwing their views about robustly, and they are not restrained by their masters, rather the reverse. This is how ministers can publicly agree while building private positions. They use their officials as proxies. It's something they picked up from the Middle East. We await a mushroom cloud over Whitehall.