GIVEN that there are many aspects to Tony Blair's much anticipated autobiography, A Journey, it's his stance in the Hunting Act debacle that strikes me as particularly troubling.

It was, he says, one of the measures he most regrets from his time in office.

In other words: "Whoops, I made a mistake. Silly me."

And that's it.

Only lipservice is paid to all the angst, all the violence, all the protest.

It is the political equivalent of a Catholic confession – yes, I got it wrong so forgive me, and all's well.

Except it isn't.

Having made what he now clearly considers was a mistake, he claims he deliberately sabotaged the subsequent 2004 Hunting Act to make sure it didn't really work.

Now it's me seeking confession – forgive me, but what sort of politics is this?

Committing yourself to a policy almost on the hoof (if you forgive the pun) and possibly to deflect criticism from other perceived failings then realising you were wrong and covering up that mistake by determining that the law you said you would introduce in the first place would not work?

According to Mr Blair the result was a masterly British compromise (masterly by whom?).

Now he says that by the end of it, after all the debate – some say this Act took up more parliamentary time than discussing whether or not Britain should go to war in Iraq – there were enough loopholes to allow hunting to continue.

So what was the point of it all? None whatsoever from where I'm sitting and it still leaves the whole matter of hunting with hounds up in the air.

Mr Blair said certain steps were taken to prevent cruelty when a fox is killed but how can that be ensured unless the killing of foxes in such a manner is made completely illegal?

Nor, he claims, did he realise how passionate the hunting community was about the ban.

Excuse me, but he was Prime Minister of Britain, was he not?

The results were there for all to see – a massive march by hunt supporters through London which left a good many of them as bloodied as their prey is no longer allowed to be.

The passion, he now says, was primeval. There's a useful response to that which invokes the name of Sherlock Holmes but cannot possibly be repeated here.

Mr Blair now reportedly says that by the end of it all "I felt like the damn fox" ... strangely enough, I should imagine there are one or two hunt supporters who wish he was one.

Prime Minister David Cameron has described the law as a "farce" and said MPs would have the chance to vote on a parliamentary motion later in the year on whether to hold a free vote on the ban.

We can but hope that they get it right this time.