He added: "This is not just an attack on our capital city but on our country and on our way of life."In Gleneagles, the day had started with a carefree mood of optimism among the leaders that a deal would be struck on climate change and Africa. President Bush joked with Mr Blair at a joint press conference at 8.39am about his fall from his bike on Wednesday, saying: "It's a beautiful day for a bike ride."Twelve minutes later, the bombers struck in London. Mr Blair was in a meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao when the news came in.Mr Blair immediately suspended further meetings, and held talks with security chiefs and senior ministers in London. "I suppose time will tell whether it's true or it's not true," he said.All these questions will be weighed up in the months ahead. Yesterdaywill significantly change the terms of the political debate.
When the Government puts through new anti-terrorism laws, as it already intended, it might find the backcloth more receptive than it did this spring.There is also bound to be a debate about whether even more draconian powers are needed to combat a now unmistakable threat. Civil liberties campaigners, who have raised wholly legitimate questions about the Government's proposals, might find it harder to win arguments.The attacks will also transform the debate about identity cards. Ironically, ministers have recently played down the terrorist threat as a justification for ID cards - originally given as a prime reason. Instead, ministers have talked up the problems from identity fraud and the need to use biometrics to keep Britain up to speed with other countries.There might now be a new attempt to highlight the terrorism threat in the ID card debate. It may make it more difficult for opponents to campaign against them. In 2003, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) disclosed that five weeks before the war Mr Blair was told by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) that "al-Qa'ida and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to Western interests and that threat would be heightened by military action [in Iraq]".In his evidence to the ISC, Mr Blair admitted "there was obviously a danger that, in attacking Iraq, you ended up provoking the very thing you were trying to avoid" He said he judged that the risk of inaction was worse. He will show, as he did yesterday, that he is a dependable leader in a crisis, able to speak to, and for, the nation.
But he will eventually face some difficult questions, as the anti-war MP George Galloway quickly, and prematurely, reminded him when he said Londoners had "paid the price" for Mr Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.It was not only anti-war campaigners who warned that attacking Iraq could bring reprisals. After triumph turned to tragedy yesterday, it was a grim reminder that the Iraq cloud still hangs over the Prime Minister, just as it did during the election campaign.In the short term, the country and its political parties will rightly rally behind Mr Blair. Resolving Britain's half-in, half-out relationship with Europe? That died when next year's referendum was called off. As the man who forced the European Union to face reality? Perhaps - but it's like turning round an oil tanker. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, the Olympics looked a good bet.When Blair allies discussed what he might be remembered for, the unspoken word was the one that many people already regard as his legacy: Iraq.