Original Home Page Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index All Links to ‘The Trial of Tony Blair’ posts Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here. “He’s not a war criminal. He’s not evil. He didn’t lie. He didn’t sell out Britain or commit treason. He wasn’t Bush’s poodle. He hasn’t got blood on his hands. The anti-war nutters must not be allowed to damage Blair’s reputation further. He was a great PM, a great statesman and a great leader.” See this recent signature comment Comment at end Ban Blair-Baiting 17th February, 2010 Hat tip to Atlas Shrugs Last Friday the Liberal Democrats dumped their House of Lords health spokesperson Baroness Jenny Tonge for her “wholly unacceptable” accusations against Israel. Tonge had called for an inquiry...

Arms firm pays out £300m after long-running Guardian investigationThe arms giant BAE today agreed to pay out almost £300m in penalties as the company finally admitted guilt over its worldwide conduct in the face of long-running corruption investigations.For 20 years, the firm had refused to accept any wrongdoing, despite mounting evidence of alleged bribes and kickbacks, much of it uncovered by the Guardian.But BAE said it would plead guilty to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements in simultaneous settlement deals with the Serious Fraud Office in the UK, and the department of justice in Washington.The admissions in the US covered BAE's huge £43bn al-Yamamah fighter plane sales to Saudi Arabia, and smaller deals in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in central...

Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index All Links to ‘The Trial of Tony Blair’ posts Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here. A recent signature comment: “Blair was an outstanding prime minister doing his job very well. One of his jobs was to take decisions like going to war.” Comment at end 4th February, 2010 AS CLARE SHORT SNORTS, TONY SMILES On the same day, Tuesday, that Clare Short was doing her best to blacken the name of her former boss, Tony Blair was visiting Sebastia, near Nablus in the West Bank. Looks worried doesn’t he? From Tony Blair Office website Tourism can help regenerate West Bank, says Tony Blair on visit to Sebastia Tuesday, Feb 02, 2010 in Office of Tony Blair, Office of the Quartet Representative Quartet Representative Tony Blair visited...

Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index All Links to ‘The Trial of Tony Blair’ posts Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here. A recent sig comment: “Blair was an outstanding prime minister doing his job very well. One of his jobs was to take decisions like going to war.” Comment at end 3rd February, 2010 With a trilby tip to Simon Hoggart’s amusing “Yes but, no but, yes but” here at the Guardian John Rentoul writes on Clare Short’s “counterfactual universe” at the Iraq Inquiry yesterday. All rather odd to ask her to put herself in Blair’s position, of course. We ALL KNOW, DON’T WE that she would never have started from there. Oh, no. Y-A-W-N! She’d have sorted out the Palestine situation first. Yes but, no but...

Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index All Links to ‘The Trial of Tony Blair’ posts Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here. A recent sig comment: “Blair was an outstanding prime minister doing his job very well. One of his jobs was to take decisions like going to war.” Comment at end 3rd February, 2010 SHOCK!!!!Clare Short says Blair is SINCERE!!!!! By Julie – thanks, Julie! Hold onto your breath now Blair-dissers. Your No. 1 Warrior Princess Clare Short has told the troof THE TRUTH for once (a rare moment of enlightment, I suppose)…….. Ms. Short former Minister of International Destruction Development, appearing in front of the Iraq Inquiry today, told the panel that: a) “I think Tony Blair sincerely wants to contribute to peace in the Middle...

Former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI (pictured above) appears to be taking the piss. On the same day that he announced his “state visit” to Britain later this year, the Vatican condemned Britain’s proposed equality laws, complaining that legislation to give women and homosexuals equal rights would “violate natural law”. The Prussian Pontiff launched an unprecedented attack on the human rights policies of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, claiming that they threatened religious freedom and urging Roman Catholic bishops to fight back with “missionary zeal”. The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, also got into the act, bleating that the new equality legislation as “unjust”. And the Pope urged the 35...

Former minister says government was a 'lunatic asylum' in runup to attack with Gordon Brown also 'unhappy and marginalised'Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith, his attorney general, misled parliament and the cabinet before Britain, to its "eternal shame", joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, Clare Short told the Chilcot inquiry today.During nearly three hours of testimony, the then international development secretary, who resigned soon after the March 2003 invasion as a result of what she called broken promises, described the atmosphere within the government during the runup to war. It was chaotic and fraught, she said, adding: "We were in a bit of a lunatic asylum."Short described how she used to meet Gordon Brown in the weeks before the invasion. "I had various cups of coffee with Gordon," she...

I have to say that in the small space of time I had available, I was somewhat riveted by Clare Short giving evidence at the Chilcot Enquiry today.It wasn't so much what Short said (although I enjoyed her combat with Sir Martin Gilbert), it was her comments about the lack of cabinet consultation in the run-up to the Iraq conflict and Blair's disdain for the full need of collegallity in government. Put simply it's been mentioned before where Tony Blair is concerned.That's not a good state of affairs to be in and hopefully Iraq is a classic example of why it is wrong. Some Prime Ministers, such as Margaret Thatcher, saw cabinet run by dictatorship as a virtue (and I can understand the mentality behind that), but this is wrong. You have to work on trust and you have to be aware that you are...

• Blair 'lied' over war preparations• Attorney general 'misled' government• Brown 'marginalised and unhappy' Clare Short at the Iraq war inquiry - as it happenedClare Short, the former international development secretary, today accused Tony Blair of lying to her and misleading parliament in the build-up to the Iraq invasion.Short, giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the war, also said the 2003 conflict had put the world in greater danger of international terrorism.Declassified letters between Short and Blair released today show she believed that invading Iraq without a second UN resolution would be illegal and there was a significant risk of a humanitarian catastrophe.She told the inquiry that she had a conversation with Blair in 2002. He told her that he was not planning...

Listening to Clare Short's evidence to the Chilcot Enquiry this morning has got to be excruciating for Labour and Blair in particular. Clare is not pulling any punches and seems, if anything, that she is out to tell it the way it was, warts and all. Who do we believe? Blair, Campbell, Goldsmith and Straw - all who have to defend their actions - or do we believe Short who resigned over the conflict and has nothing to lose? I'm sure Clare has an axe to grind, but I can't help feeling that she is telling us the truth.Here are a few lines from her evidence:"We asked for a briefing... This just didn't come and didn't come.""It became clear there was some sort of block on communications." She told the Iraq inquiry the cabinet had not been a "decision-making body" and called Parliament a "rubber...

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Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index “Ban Blair-Baiting” petition - please sign Comment at end 3rd December, 2009 Iraq Inquiry: 7th day of public hearings with Boyce and Tebbit By Julie This post, like the 1st Day, the 2nd Day, the 3rd Day ,the 4th Day, the 5th Day and the 6th Day comes with my grateful thanks to Julie here Also see Iraq Inquiry timetable of hearings, who and when Pic: (left) Lord Michael Boyce; (right) Sir Kevin Tebbit These are the most significant quotes from the seventh session of the Iraq Inquiry. And you can read the full transcript of the session here And you can watch the video here ——————————————- 7th day of public hearings Subject: Military Planning 3rd December 2009: Morning session: Evidence by Lord Michael...

Clare Short, in her book, An Honourable Deception?, talks about religious fanaticism. She makes the point that the Iraqi body count website calculates that between the 9/11 bombings and February 2004, there were roughly 3,500 deaths resulting from Islamic extremist attacks on Western targets. In comparison she points out that over 13,000 non-combatant civilians died as a result of the Iraq war, as well as another 3,000 in Afghanistan, and 3,000 Palestinian civilians. Looking at these figures – and acknowledging that many more Muslims have died in violence in the Balkans, Pakistan, Chechnya – it is easy to see why young Muslims living in these countries have a view of the world that includes a sense that the world values their lives much less than those of, say, me, a typical...

In the UK it was Budget Day yesterday and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling delivered his speech in the House of Commons (pictured above). In doing so he laid down battle lines for next year’s general election with a £7 billion squeeze on the rich followed by a freeze on public spending in the next parliament. Admitting that the worst year for ­economic growth since 1945 would create a £175 billion hole in the public finances this year, the Chancellor then broke New Labour’s 2005 manifesto pledge not to raise income tax by lifting the top rate for those earning more than £150,000 to 50%  from next April. The “soak the rich” theme also included the abolition of personal allowances for those earning more than £100,000 a year and the phasing...

Generally speaking political diaries are not best read cover to cover, and certainly not if they weigh in at 590 pages. They are for dipping into, browsing the index, and allowing your eyes to wonder to names, places and events that leap from the text. But (owing to a very long journey) I did consume Chris Mullin’s A View from the Foothills – touted as Labour’s answer to Alan Clark – in pretty much one sitting. Like all political diaries, it both benefits and loses from its fixation with the moment; if you’re scribbling as and when you get the opportunity, there is scant opportunity for reflection or analysis. What you get instead is an unvarnished of-the-moment description (if the diarist is candid), and colourful and entertaining episodes (if the diarist is talented)....

On top of the dreadful casualties from Israel's 22-day war in Gaza, we should add a further serious injury. It is longer-lasting and threatens the lives and wellbeing of very many people in the future. In the Israel/Palestine conflict, we are seeing a terrible undermining of international law and the principle that armies should adhere to minimum standards of humane behaviour, even during the heat of battle.If they fall below this minimum, they should, according to the laws of war, be held responsible for their war crimes – first, by their own superiors or courts, but, if necessary, by other nations or international courts. This principle – of accountability, even in war – is now in a critical condition as the standards are being ignored by Gaza's warring parties. Then, it's being...

A few weeks ago I commented on the Birmingham Ladywood Labour parliamentary candidate selection.  Cllr Yvonne Mosquito, a black Caribbean councillor, lost the selection to Shabana Mahmood, a Pakistani woman barrister.  As someone who takes an interest in ethnic minority issues, I’m well aware of the ethnic rivalry within this part of Birmingham but the fact that it has now spilled over into the Labour Party in Ladywood is quite remarkable.  Now the saga continues with the Vice Chair of Nechells Ward Labour Party writing to the Prime Minister (click the link for the letter in full on The Stirrer website).  It is not clear whether there was fraud or if it was simply local Labour Party members (who were away in Pakistan at the time) excercising their democratic right.  Whatever...

The Labour Party has traditionally been able to count upon the support of many people of South Asian and black (African-Caribbean) heritage.  However, in recent years Labour has been losing the Muslim vote, primarily because of the war on terror - and no doubt proposals to increase the limit for detention without trial to 42 days, and the vote taking place in the House of Commons this Wednesday, will anger many more Muslim voters.  And, as reported here last year, Labour’s all-women shortlists have been preventing many black and Asian men from being selected as parliamentary candidates. While MPs are making their minds up, one of Birmingham’s greatest parliamentarians, Clare Short, has no doubt been watching with interest as her seat selects its next Labour candidate. ...

Is there a smoking gun behind the Short resignation? And how much does she have in common with Liberal Democrats?...

Rumours reach me that Clare Short is likely to find herself excommunicated from the Labour Party as soon as Wednesday this week. (pic from Random Perspective)If anyone has any doubts about the likely outcome - given that Clare has advocated a hung parliament as the best future option, something that could only occur with Labour-held seats changing hands - here's the relevant section of the rulebook (2A4b, if you really care):A member of the party who joins and/or supports a political organisation other than an official Labour group or other unit of the party, or supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate, or publicly declares their intent to stand against a Labour candidate, shall automatically be ineligible to be or remain a party memberAnd here's the outcome,...