The Prime Minister’s entire political philosophy is summed up in one of his favourite phrases: what works

The Prime Minister’s entire political philosophy is summed up in one of his favourite phrases: what works. Thus, in describing his aims last week, Mr Blair said: “I have simply been trying to do one thing. President Lindbergh is a thinly disguised version of George W Bush, and Mr Roth’s message is that when such populists attain power, traditional restraints fail to impede them.Instead of the fictional President Lindbergh, we have the actual Tony Blair. The reason why Mr Blair is a serious threat to our long-established constitutional arrangements is that he has no discernible interest in civil liberties. In the absence of a written constitution, I feared there wasn’t.
Admittedly we hadn’t reached the nightmare situation described by Philip Roth in his latest novel, The Plot Against America. In it, Mr Roth has Roosevelt losing the 1940 presidential election to the aviation hero and anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh.

As President, “Lyndy” stays closely in touch with grass-roots America. He pilots himself in a single-seater plane to great meetings across the country and remains immensely popular even though his government signs a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany and Congress, now controlled by his supporters, legislates in a manner inspired more by Mussolini than by the Founding Fathers. I never wanted to find out whether there was anything to prevent a government with a large majority in the House of Commons from taking away our freedoms. What a week! The system just about worked. But on Saturday night in the Sabra camp, someone knifed to death an elderly Syrian fruit-seller in what was an obvious attempt to provoke violence
More from Robert Fisk.

The second, by pro-Syrian demonstrators, is planned to march to the US embassy in the Aukar suburb of east Beirut.All this is being organised while violent rumours sweep Beirut. One says that the Syrians have been handing out weapons to pro-Syrian Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila in Beirut and Ein el-Helwe in Sidon.Investigations by The Independent strongly suggest that this in untrue; the Palestinians have quite enough weapons without being resupplied, and many of them would like to be disarmed to end lethal inter-Palestinian factional fighting. The balloon in the centre of the photograph regularly takes tourists on sightseeing tours of Beirut.Some members of the Hariri family have been told that the report of the UN inquiry team will be so devastating that it will force a full international investigation of the murder of “Mr Lebanon” and his entourage, perhaps reaching to the higher echelons of the Syrian and Lebanese governments.Hariri opposed the continued Syrian military presence in Lebanon and many Lebanese have blamed the Syrians for his murder. The UN investigators have become convinced that there was a cover-up of evidence at the very highest levels of the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence authorities.In their search for information, at least one Irish police officer has now interviewed Brigadier General Rustum Ghazale, the senior Syrian army intelligence officer in Lebanon, at his headquarters in Aanjar.

He is believed to have pointed out to the police that his job was only to safeguard Syrian forces in the country – an assertion which will require more than a few grains of Syrian salt to be believed.President Bush’s expected remarks on Wednesday will follow two extraordinary days of public demonstrations in Beirut. In the first, today, opposition politicians will try to gather a million followers to protest against the government’s failure to resign and to reveal the truth about Hariri’s murder – as well as to dwarf last Tuesday’s half-million strong Hizbollah rally in support of Syria. Both the metal cover and an extensive area of roadway around it were atomised by the bomb.The picture also shows two buildings which the UN police officers are investigating as possible locations of the bomber who detonated the explosives: one is on top of the circular building in the centre of the photo – which houses a Beirut hotel as well as a Lebanese army retirement fund office – and the other is on top of the war-damaged Holiday Inn (far right) which has been empty for more than a decade. It shows a drain cover in the road at the exact spot where the explosion was to tear a 30-foot crater in the highway, instantly killing Hariri and many of his bodyguards.The section of roadway is marked off by “no parking” signs which have been left there innocently by staff of the nearby HSBC bank. But a mysterious object can be seen on the left edge of the drain cover. First reports that Hariri was killed by a car bomb are now being challenged by evidence that the explosives – estimated at 600kg – could have been buried beneath the seafront avenue.A unique photograph handed to The Independent in Beirut – which is now also in the hands of the UN investigators – was taken on the afternoon of 12 February, about 36 hours before the bombing.