THERE is little surprise that the Prime Minister is, in the words of the Peter Pan of Pop, looking "tired and gaunt".

Sir Cliff Richard is not the only one to have noticed it. Mr Blair's physical appearance is remarked upon as much as his policies - in the run-up to the war, his difficulties with a lingering cold were written about as much as his difficulties with a lingering leader like Saddam Hussein.

Usually, Mr Blair does bounce back: after a couple of nights undisturbed sleep, the youthful grin is back on full beam.

But at the moment, cruel fate is presenting the Prime Minister with a series of no-win decisions that have to be made.

Perhaps the first of these was the war. There was no overwhelming case for attacking Iraq earlier in the year - but, for Mr Blair, doing nothing was not an option. With the United Nations paralysed and George Bush itching for a fight, Mr Blair had to decide to do something.

This weekend, Mr Blair has been wrestling with another no-win decision: Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe's regime clearly cannot be tolerated within a civilised institution like the Commonwealth, but if Zimbabwe remains suspended, the Commonwealth loses all power of influence over it. Mr Blair had to decide to do something with Zimbabwe.

He returns from Nigeria to face another no-win decision which may cost him his job: university tuition fees. Of course, further education should be free and open to all as a point of principle, and it is outrageous that a Labour Government should be even thinking otherwise.

Yet, if Britain is going to encourage half of her young people to really stretch their minds, she is going to have to increase taxes hugely or find some other means of raising the revenue.

There is no overwhelming case for tuition fees, but Mr Blair has to decide something or our universities will run out of money.

And Mr Blair knows that every nuance of every suggestion that he makes on any subject will be pored over by the 24-hour media and then, possibly, by a judge like Lord Hutton who is about to give his reading of the unhappy events that led to the death of Dr David Kelly.

Such are the pressures of these no-win decisions, that it is unsurprising if they are taking their toll on Mr Blair. His is a job that few of us really envy - apart, of course, from his best friend Gordon Brown, and that may well be another reason for him feeling "tired and gaunt".