Cherie Blair strode into the Wilson Room to testify before the Home Affairs Committee and looked rather startled to find a room of people staring at her. “Oh!” she squealed, her dimples already working her face. I am sure I was not alone in desperately trying to ban the words “contraceptive equipment” from my mind. But censorship never works. The words kept popping up, in a thought bubble above her head.

The subject was knife crime. Cherie is the chairwoman of the Street Weapons Commission, which apparently isn’t a commission in the normal sense at all but a Channel 4 series that is on this week.

Hmmm. When Cherie left No 10, a year ago almost to the day, her last words were: “I don’t think we’ll miss you.” But, you know, I think she has. Indeed, Cherie seems to have missed us so much that she is becoming part of us.

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the committee, was thrilled to have some stardust in the room. Mr Vaz, known as Vaz-oline for his wonderfully unctuous ways, was in a stern mood yesterday.

At one point, an MP was asking Cherie a question. “Cherie,” he began somewhat tentatively (no doubt fighting the desire to say “contraceptive equipment”). “No,” barked Mr Vaz-oline. “Ms Booth!”

The dimples go-go danced at this. Ms Booth-Blair-Whatever-Suits looks great, by the way: ten years younger, thinner, softer. The hair was particularly good. I can only assume André Suard, her beloved portmanteau hairdresser/nanny, had been in action. (I wonder who’s paying that bill?)

Cherie is quite the talker. Her voice, low and mellifluous, is perfect for TV and radio, which, one suspects, hasn’t passed her by. She thinks that there is much more knife crime among kids than we know about. Apparently 50 per cent of people with knife wounds in hospital claim that they are nothing to do with crime.

Much of what she said was obvious but she has a knack for making you listen. She said that, as a mother, she too was concerned about her children’s safety on the streets. She kept dropping in personal titbits (“I used to live in Hackney” etc). Asked if the commission had too many lawyers, she retorted: “Well, some lawyers are working-class too!”

Her words swarmed round the room, perhaps trying to overwhelm that pesky “contraceptive” thought bubble. Mr Vaz asked her several times to keep her answers short but with no visible impact. “I want you to answer this in 30 seconds only. If you were Home Secretary for one day, what one practical thing would you do to reduce knives and guns on the street?”

Ms Booth said that we must get rid of the idea that carrying a knife is glamorous. Then she left, her thought bubble on a lead.

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