Tony Blair
Of all the important things going on at the moment, and there are a good many competing for the prime spot, none is more important, far reaching or deeper than the ‘see into my heart’ interview given by the former Prime Minister.
It is fundamental because it tells us that with this man at the helm of our country, who at the time I very much admired, what we were told by him was not only clearly wrong about weapons of mass destruction, but if that had been spotted at the time, he would have used some other excuse.
This is not a spat about the level of income tax or asylum rules, it is about invading a sovereign country (albeit rather a frightening one) because we did not approve of its government. It cost the lives not only of our own brave troops but tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of innocent civilians, women and children included. And for what outcome? Continuing instability, bombings and privations years afterwards in a saga of despair lasting longer than the second world war.
Never in history has a ruler of this country so flagrantly abused the trust placed in him by the people. Never again will the people trust their government, not just on little issues of self interest, but on big issues that really matter. This is a disaster, which must be repaired. I have said before that we need a proper Constitution formalise and control the power of government. This episode underlines the reasons why. Among the many constraints and obligations it would embody would be one to make it unconstitutional to wage aggressive war and invade a foreign country, unless directly threatened. Many civilised democracies have this clause already. Time for us to be counted in.
The notion that home defense starts in the wild mountains at the other end of the earth and thus we have a right to send our military wherever the government of the day(which we cannot from experience trust) decides, is complete, utter and absolute rubbish.