By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

Well, are you sick of the sight of him yet?

If not, then the Downing Street plan to offer an excess of Blair until the appetite sickens and then dies has failed.

That, at least, is the cynical view of the sudden conversion to openness and transparency by the prime minister.

Not avoiding questions

The charitable, however, see his decision to appear before MPs and the media in open press conferences - and look out for another of those within the next couple of weeks - as a major step forward in accountability.

That is certainly the way Downing Street wants his move to be seen.

And, to be fair, the prime minister's advisers also believe that Mr Blair is his own best advocate.

Radical re-think

They think that, if he is presented full-frontal to the voters then they will not only warm to him but accept his case for the defence. And they have a point.

It was a tactic he deployed with great success in the early days of his premiership - everyone remembers the famous "I'm a straight kinda guy" TV performance at the height of the Bernie Ecclestone cash-for-favours row.

But, as his political honeymoon finally ended and he found himself increasingly besieged by critics, he withdrew.

Alan Williams: More questioning to come

There has now been a radical re-think and the telly-friendly Tony is back.

And, on the first two performances, the move has been another great success.

He charmed the world's media last month and has now turned it on for the liaison committee of MPs.

The session started with chairman Alan Williams declaring it would not be confrontational but " a questioning discourse" - a statement which brought an almost audible groan from the media.

But no one could complain that the MPs held back or did not do their best to put him on the spot.

Less spin

But he pretty much charmed the socks off them with his relaxed, disarming, shirt-sleeves candour.

One possible exception was the formidable transport committee chair Gwyneth Dunwoody who has built a reputation on resisting charm from any quarter.

He not only defended his centralist tendencies but explained why there were really a very good thing.

Tony Wright is critical of spin doctors

He accepted there had probably been a bit too much spin in government after 18 years in opposition.

And, pressed by Labour's Tony Wright, he admitted to a Damascene conversion over appearing before the committee, which he had previously suggested was out of the question.

At home

When he ducked or avoided a question he did so with candour and he even managed to look a touch embarrassed when rolled an easy ball.

And, time and again, he dismissed some of the more regular attacks on the way he and his government do business by declaring: "It's just not like that." And it is hard not to believe him.

It was a confident, sure-footed performance and will have delighted his minders.

It didn't, of course, tell us anything we didn't already know. But that was most definitely not the aim of the exercise.

What it did was present the picture of a prime minister completely at home in his own skin and in his government.

He will be hoping these performances also lead to the country becoming more at home with him than it currently appears to be.