Tebbit-Blair to blame

Norman Tebbit,yes remember him sets out his stall on the Iraq wall in the Telegraph's Three Line Whip Column.

Commenting on the Chilcott inquiry he writes

What we do know is that Mr Blair carries responsibility for those needless casualties just as surely as, in America, he claims credit for having taken us to war and just as surely collects dollars by the million for having done so.

Well that says it all

Straw lands Blair in it

I am just catching up with Jack Straw's testimony at the Chilcott inquiry.

As they say,hindsight is a wonderful thing but it is clear that the former foreign secretary is carefully distancing himself from the former Prime Minister.

It is also clear that it was far from certain that there was a basis to go to war on the back of weapons of mass destruction and that Straw himself had a real moral dilemma over going to war.

Straw it seems worked hard to go down the UN route closely it seems with Colin Powell whilst it appears that his boss and George Bush were intent on overriding international law.

Where his testimony goes wrong is that he continued to vote for the war after the failure to get a second UN resolution.

A reversal on Iraq

Hot on the heals of telling the nation that he is happy tp appear in front of the Chilcott inquiry before the election,we here that

The Iraq Inquiry has confirmed that it had received Brown's letter today. The panel will consider it "as soon as possible".

Rather an about turn then from his stance last week when put under the cosh by Nick Clegg.

Although according to Paul Waugh

Personally, I would be surprised if they allowed to give evidence before polling day. Their original reasoning for not inviting him was because the committee didn't want to get dragged into party politics. As Brown was PM when the troops were pulled out of Iraq - a key bit of the inquiry's work but not yet fully explored - then he is a key witness. But that would mean questioning him about his role as PM (not Chancellor so much), hence the committe's reticence.

Hoon tows the line

Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon has been giving evidence to the Chilcoot inquiry today as has told the panel that British involvement in the invasion of Iraq was not decided until it was approved by MPs.

The first cabinet member at the time to give evidence said

“I don’t believe he was ever unconditionally committing us to anything

he says of Tony Blair and reinforces that fact by telling the inquiry that in October 2002 the Americans were planning on the assumption that UK wouldn't give ground troops.

What he has also told the inquiry is that it was clear to him that Lord Goldsmith's conclusion was that there was a legal justification for military action based on 14.41.

“(There was) no doubt had Peter Goldsmith said this was illegal, there would have been no military action."