we didn't have to deal with deadly bomb and mortar attacks

Over at Coffee House Peter Hoskin makes the point that despite the intimidation,voter turnout in Iraq is higher than that of the UK.

Ok, so it's down on the 75 percent achieved in 2005, but it's still striking – encouraging, even – that voter turnout was at 62 percent for the recent Iraqi general elections. That's higher than the 61.4 percent for the last UK general election and, lest it need saying, we didn't have to deal with deadly bomb and mortar attacks.
With the "chasm" between voters and the political class as it is, in this country, you suspect that our turnout figures will be even smaller this time around.

Tears and dissembling on Marr

Quite a remarkable Andrew Marr show this morning.

Everybody is talking about the Alistair Campbell moment when the great man,that's Campbell appeared to break down over Marr's questioning over the dodgy dossier.

Having been already grilled about the similarities in his book to the relationship with Blair,he seemed genuinely upset about the whole affair and the way the media are continously on the back of his "friend"

People are asking whether this was genuine emotion or pure theatre,the cynics pointing to Gordon Brown's disembling in front of Piers Morgan as part of the soft heart stratgey to the party.

I don't agree in the theatre,I think he was genuinely upset by the continous relentive pressure of the media over this subject.He clearly feels that the Blair government took the right decisions in 2002-3

Whilst Marr was back to his best as an incisive political interviewer,an opportunity he has missed on numerous occassions recently,in some ways I agree with Campbell

"I don’t think the media is interested in truth now... (it's) interested in settling scores, settling agenda,"

It wasn't the only bit of incisive bit of political interviewing as Marr put William Hague under pressure over Lord Ashcroft.

Hague described him as a close friend but failing,despite repeated opportunities to answer the golden question.Does he pay UK tax.

Nevertheless putting up a dramatic riposte to the Ashcroft controversy by comparing it to the Trade Union funding of the Labour party,hardly to my mind a fair comparison

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.

A great opportunity missed over Iraq

A big chance was missed by the Brown team today over the announcement of the Iraq inquiry this afternoon.

This was a chance to show a transparent government but what we have got is evidence being held in camera and a delay so that it won't report until the next Parliament.

We face what could be a costly and protracted set of hearings rather reminiscent of the Bloody Sunday report.

Nick Clegg refers to the Privacy council members as the "handpicked grandees”

The last word goes to Richard Preston who says the

Ayatollah's inquiry will take 10 days, Brown's Iraq inquiry 'at least a year'

How safe is Baghdad?

Over at Time magazine Mark Kukis asks whether Baghdad is now safer than New Orleans?

In all, deaths in Baghdad in 2008 numbered roughly 2,880, according to the database's figures. Given that Baghdad is a city of about six million that makes for a murder rate of about 48 per 100,000 people. How does that compare to other cities blighted by high levels of violence?

whereas

New Orleans, with an estimated post-Katrina population of just over 300,000, is tiny in size compared to its rivals. But the number of murders is huge; figures vary, but even the low estimate puts the city on a par with Cape Town at around 62 per 10,000

Now there is a thought

I am watching what is really quite a pointless debate on MP's expenses now that Gordon Brown has decreed that it will go fully to the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Iain Dale has a theory why though

"Remind me, what is the Commons debating today? And whose idea was it to have a vote on expenses today? And didn't Number 10 know that today was the day of British troops withdrawal when they decided that MPs should spend the whole day talking about expenses?"

Blair in Chicago

John Rentoul,biographer of Tony Blair reflects on his speech in Chicago last night in which he defended his historic intervention in Kosovo 10 years ago.

It is what John calls

a values-based foreign policy, backed up by a willingness to intervene militarily,

However the legacy of this policy will be Iraq which will hang around his neck like the proverbial albatross.

Also last night he notes

Mahathir Mohamad, the former Malaysian prime minister, showed that in Blair's work of bolstering moderate Islam there has been a lot done, a lot still to do. "About 2,000 peace activists applauded" as George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard, the former Australian prime minister, were branded "fascist war criminals" at a conference in Malaysia.

When one society comes up against another

Another example of the problems of when Western Style openess in society comes up against Islamic traditions.

This from the New York Times

The relative freedom of a newly democratic Iraq and the recent improvement in security have allowed a gay subculture to flourish here. The response has been swift and deadly.
In the past two months, the bodies of as many as 25 boys and men suspected of being gay have turned up in the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City, the police and friends of the dead say. Most have been shot, some multiple times. Several have been found with the word “pervert” in Arabic on notes attached to their bodies, the police said.

How the American's are training the Iraqi police

Remarkable piece of motivational video



Hat Tip-Recess Monkey

One country that is weathering the storm....Iraq

Maybe not the ideal posting but one place that has so far avoided the global downturn is Iraq.

This from Time magazine

Iraq's ability to weather the global slowdown at the moment rests in the huge currency reserves it earned in recent years selling oil as prices soared. Iraq has roughly $30 billion in surpluses from previous years. That has allowed the country to maintain minimum standards of services and governance despite depression-scale unemployment (no reliable data are available, but some experts estimate unemployment may be over 20%). Iraq's GDP is growing steadily despite the global financial crisis. Last year, GDP grew in Iraq an estimated 7% to 9%. This year, GDP is projected to rise 5% to 7%. (See pictures of life returning to Iraq's streets.)

But storm clouds are on the horizon.With the global drop in oil prices the country faces a deficit this year of roughly $20 billion,which will wipe out the current surplus.

The country must then look to other sectors to prop it up and

Iraq cannot currently generate cash on capital markets like other countries by the sale of bonds because of hundreds of unsettled claims worth billions of dollars related to Iraq's 1991 invasion of Kuwait. Scores of possible lawsuits by Kuwaitis and Westerners lurk in countries where Iraq might sell bonds, which could be seized by courts deciding cases put forward by plaintiffs allegedly wronged by the former regime.

Iraq-on the mend but at what cost

This morning's news that a recruiter of women suicide bombers in Iraq has been apprehended can only be good news.

It once again brings home that the situation in the country is slowly turning around

John Rentoul looks at the wider implications of the Iraq situation following the weekend's elections on his blog Independent minds

The significance of the "civilian surge" that has followed the military one over the past year ought to be world-view-changing. What if Iraq does "come good"? It is not there yet, but the hopeful signs are now so overwhelming that a major adjustment is required.

he writes and rather controversially points out that

Iraqis really do have hope now of a stable, prosperous and free future,which they didn't before, and wouldn't if the invasion hadn't happened.

The question is at what cost in lives lost and the political implications from the invasion as well as the diversion of resources from Afghanistan

Heathrow decision-will it be Brown's Iraq moment?

Couldn't help but spot this at Labourhome.

Will it come true?

He's turned his back on his members, on his voters, on his PLP and finally on his cabinet. Sound familiar?
When normally loyal members of the cabinet say "Don't do it" you should listen to them, Gordon. You are handing over seats to the Tory party and we'll never forgive you for that.

Nearly got him

Definitely the story of the day as Bush does his farewells to Baghdad,an Iraqi journalist gets a little irate and throws his shoes at the President

This is the end!" shouted the protester, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadiya TV, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.
Mr Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him

reports Sky news

Just when you've finished one thing.......

Just when you've finished one thing along comes another must be a motto for the Brown government.

As the media were waiting for the results of the vote,the story breaks that a top security document had been left on a train.The official,who has since been suspended,was lucky in that it was handed to the BBC and made its way to security correspondant Frank Gardiner.

He has just been interviewed on the today programme and tells that there were two documents,one an assessment of security in Iraq and a second,far more important which detailed strategy over tackling Al Qaeda.

Another embarassment for the government which has had,by all accounts to grovel to its allies who had contributed to the document.

Gordon Brown is due in front of the press this morning.The purpose was to detail measures to tackle rising fuel prices.Guess what the questions will be about now?

Des Browne mauled on Today

If you want to hear an example of a politician being publically mauled then listen to defence secretary Des Browne being interviewed by John Humphreys on Today this morning.
It started badly with Browne accusing Humphreys of not having read the ruling and saying his introduction was full of inaccuracies.

Humphreys then attempted to go thru his introduction point by point with Browne digging his heals in over every point.

Humphreys insisting on reciting what the judge said and accused Browne of splitting hairs.

The breaking point came as the Today presenter accused the Defence secretary of going to court to stop the legal process investigating the failings of equipment in Iraq.Browne would not except that issue and Humphreys kept asking why he is appealing against the judgement.

By the end of the interview Browne was flaying seemingly losing the plot and repeating the same line over and over again.Then to finish him off,Humphreys brought up the issue of Bae.

Marvellous listening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget the bed post-what about Iraq?

Daniel Finkelstein alerts the public to another aspect of the Nick Clegg interview with Piers Morgan in GQ.

Perhaps we should be worried about his sexual conquests but even more about his views on Iraq

Piers Morgan: Was the invasion of Iraq illegal?
Nick Clegg: There's a strong case to suggest it was in breach of UN resolutions, yes.

PM: So, assuming it was illegal, would it be justified for Iraqis to exact revenge on Britain?
NC: I don't think you remedy an act of violence like that.

PM: If Iraq had invaded Britain illegally, you would have said it was morally justified for us to attack them back, wouldn't you?
NC: Yes, I probably would.

PM: So why is it not morally justified for them to attack us back?
NC: I wish it was that simple.

PM: If it is morally certain one way, surely it has to be the other way, too?
NC: No, you are repeating the error of Blair and Bush, this Old Testament view of moral rigidity that says you compound one thing with another.

PM: If Iran illegally bombs London next month, should we retaliate?
NC: Of course we should.

PM: But you say it is not morally justified for Iraqis to attack us?
NC: Because foreign affairs cannot be driven with absolute moral precision.

PM: I don't understand why Iraqis don't have a moral right to attack us if you say we illegally invaded them.
NC: I can see how people could construct a moral justification. But I don't think the morality of invading Iraq is expunged by them attacking us.

PM: I'm baffled. If Iraq invaded us, you would say it was morally justified to strike back, but it's not morally justified for them to do it to us even if our invasion was illegal?
NC: If you are invaded illegally, then clearly you feel you have a moral justification. But that isn't a sensible way to conduct foreign affairs. Bush and Blair waged war on Iraq through misplaced moral certainty.

So lets get this right.What would happen if Iraq invaded us?

Powell-Regrets I had a few

The revelations that Tony Blair's ex chief of staff Jonathon Powell thinks that we should be talking to Al Qaeda makes the headlines but his book out on Monday and to be serialised in the Guardian contains many other revelations about the Blair Government.

Powell was the longest serving member of Blair's inner circle joining the former Prime Minister in 1995 and leaving on the day of his resignation.

Interviewed in this morning's Guardian magazine,he is compared to Alsitair Campbell as such

If Alastair Campbell was the mercurial all-rounder, blasting his way to a flashy 50 before being caught off an ill-judged stroke, Powell was the cool-headed, circumspect opener quietly toiling to a gritty 100 before running out of partners at the crease

He kept 17 bound diaries during his 12 years and not surprisingly they contain some revelations which the Guardian will be holding back for next week.We are though given some snippets

On Blair's weakness

he ventures, a little half-heartedly, that perhaps there was some hubris towards the end, and "maybe he was not quite tough enough with people

and adds

not sticking to things once you'd decided them.

He is disappointed that

Labour failed seriously to challenge the establishment. "What we sort of did was create a new establishment, which was pretty much like the old establishment but with slightly different people...

and regrets

Labour did not govern more boldly. "I think we were mesmerised by the notion that we'd be another Labour government that came in, a flash in the pan, and then disappeared again. One term and, if we were lucky, two terms. And so the huge emphasis was on not spending all our political capital, hoarding it and saving it to win another election and stay in power. I think it ran through all three terms. You never quite escaped it."

On Iraq he concedes that the government had

not understoodquite what we were getting ourselves into... I don't think we realised quite what a task, or a lengthy task, we were taking on

And finally on the story that

Brown walked past Powell every week for 10 years for his regular meetings with Blair without ever saying hello

well it was all true