THE Hutton Inquiry may be as fascinating as a soap opera to its followers, and its intricacies will become even more beguiling this week when the Prime Minister himself gives evidence.

But back in the real world, there are far more serious matters. So serious, in fact, that even those who lent their support to Tony Blair's genuine reasons for going to war are beginning to wonder how long the present situation can be tolerated.

For in Iraq we appear to have removed a hated dictator and replaced him with a slow slide into anarchy.

Over the long weekend, three British soldiers have been killed - our hearts go out to their families, especially those who are our neighbours here in the North-East. Two American soldiers have also died.

In Kirkuk to the north of Baghdad, three Iraqi civilians died in ethnic violence; in Najaf to the south, three bodyguards of a cleric died in religious violence.

And the Red Cross announced that it was withdrawing its staff, and halting their vital work, because it could no longer guarantee their safety - and the situation is getting worse.

Of course, we knew that Saddam could not be removed and peace restored overnight. It is said that after the end of the Second World War it took three years and 3,000 lives to restore peace to Paris.

But, increasingly, it looks as if there was no post-Saddam plan and that the Americans in particular have been hasty and even penny-pinching in withdrawing their troops so quickly.

And the lack of United Nations involvement - with the US having the gall to invite more countries to send troops but only if they come under US control - becomes more and more distasteful.

Then couple the situation in Iraq with that in the Middle East. With Israel pummelling the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and Hamas pledging bloody revenge, the situation here is also becoming worse.

The grilling Mr Blair should really be receiving this week is not over what happened in the past - important though that may be - but about how he intends to make a better future in Iraq and the Middle East. For at the moment, our involvement in these countries on the coat-tails of the Americans is on the verge of making worse the lives of the civilians we were supposed to be helping.