Tony Blair notched up a unique achievement yesterday when he managed to unite the Countryside Alliance and the League Against Cruel Sports.

This would seem to bode well for his current role trying to bring peace to the Middle East, as the two organisations have always been the bitterest of enemies. But yesterday they both condemned the former Prime Minister's bizarre explanation of the hunting ban, one of many eyebrow-raising tales in his new memoirs.

It could be summed up as: "Well, guys, I never wanted to do it in the first place, went right off the idea after talking to a hunter, sabotaged the legislation and then told the police not to enforce it."

Those of us who followed every twist of the tortuous seven-year saga of the ban never had any doubt that he had no real appetite for the issue. But it seems remarkable how little he knew about it, and how naïve he was over the passions it arouses on both sides.

Mr Blair prides himself on his political instincts, the "emotional intelligence" he accuses Gordon Brown of conspicuously lacking, so how did he get this one so wrong?

The Alliance says: "He created one of the most illiberal, ineffective and wasteful laws of modern times. The fact that he knew what he was doing was wrong makes his actions more reprehensible, not less."

The League suggests he came close to perverting the course of justice by encouraging the police not to enforce the ban. And both of them dispute the claim that after a classic British compromise "it's banned and not quite banned at the same time".

Why has Mr Blair now outed himself as a ditherer who despite his large Commons majority was powerless to do what he thought was right?

One pro-hunting MP said if the memoirs had related how he was proud of his part in ending a cruel and unnecessary bloodsport, he would have profoundly disagreed, but respected him more. He suggested the former PM is now "sucking up to the aristocracy" as he will be mixing in high society for the next three decades and doesn't want to be constantly berated over hunting.

Mr Blair's comments about Prince Charles might seem to back up that cynical view, as he tells how he made a bet with him about the ban, and says the heir to throne "truly knew the farming community".

What is indisputable as that the indecision and confusion that surrounded the Hunting Act has led to deeply flawed legislation that makes the issue as divisive now as it was 13 years ago.