Former Cabinet member Clare Short who appeared at Swindons Festival of Literature Picture Ref: 77351-24SWINDON FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE: FRONT page news came to the Swindon Festival of Literature with the appearance of a former Cabinet Minister.

Clare Short was in town as yesterday's festival lunchtime speaker.

Taking questions from the audience, discussion inevitably turned to the question over when Tony Blair should resign.

And Ms Short's view on the matter?

"The sooner the better."

The former International Development Secretary also criticised Mr Blair's style of government.

"Tony has a little entourage in number 10," she said.

"My view is that he is trying to be presidential because he is not secure about himself."

The war on Iraq predictably featured heavily in the discussion based on Ms Short's book An Honourable Deception?

The book's title comes from the phrase she used to describe how she thought Mr Blair must have seen his actions over Iraq.

But through the whole event she referred to Mr Blair as Tony, illustrating the closeness there must have been before their falling out.

Ms Short nearly resigned over the decision to go to war but decided to stay on, after the PM made promises about the way reconstruction would be carried out in Iraq after the fighting had ended.

She said she believes Tony Blair was so desperate to keep her that he made promises he could not keep and when she realised they would not come true, she resigned.

Among the discussion of war, terrorism and politics there was only one brief insight into Ms Short's personal life when she was asked by interviewer Mike Stares about the reunion with her adopted son.

She said giving her son up for adoption was "the biggest error and pain of my life."