Who said that John Howard was insignificant on the world political scene? John has made his mark, up there with leaders of USA and England. In fact the Guardian reports that Tony Blair may even be "learning from the master" so to speak.

Speculating on the inability of Mr Blair to utter the "s" word the Guardian cites precedents in political history, Nixon, Clinton and, you guessed it, John Howard.

The exact wording used tends to be of supreme importance in these cases, treading a fine line between doing what sounds like the decent thing and accepting culpability.

The Australian prime minister, John Howard, would only go as far as to express regret for the treatment of the country's Aboriginal population,

It seems that Mr Howard has achieved his goal of being a notable Prime Minister but not, perhaps, for the things he wanted.