The magical disappearing Iraqi troop withdrawal
Written by Mark Pack on 2nd October 2007 – 10:59 pmFirst it was 2,000 British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq (the figure leaked to the BBC).
Then it was 1,000 (the figure Gordon Brown told the TV cameras earlier today).
Then it was 730 (after it turned out that 270 has already come home).
Then it was 500 (after it came to light that 230 were due to come home anyway under plans announced in July).
And then it was zero (after it turned out the other 500 are currently not in Iraq but in, er…, Germany).
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3rd October 2007 at 12:09 am
Is there a citation for the last one? A (very) quick glance at the news sites doesn’t provide corroboration
3rd October 2007 at 12:10 am
Silly Prime Minister. Germany is not home.
3rd October 2007 at 7:54 am
Tinter: it was covered in some detail on Newsnight last night, with the Labour minister (eventually) admitting the troops are indeed in Germany rather than Iraq.
3rd October 2007 at 8:40 am
I really hope that the public see through this one, because it does make Brown look like an absolute idiot. I wonder if he’s regretting the announcement today?
3rd October 2007 at 8:59 am
A quick aside: I think Newsnight should provide online transcripts of key interviews/segments as a matter of course.
3rd October 2007 at 9:36 am
The Junior Minister explained that the 1000 figure was cumulative - down from 6500 to 5500 or 5500 to 4500, he’s even got me in a spin - I’m only glad that the standard of the potato chopping has improved. I actually believed Brown was there. That’s a step in the right direction.
3rd October 2007 at 12:39 pm
Tim
One thing you can’t accuse the beeb of! Go to the website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
you can either read all the stuff or watch the programme. It is the first story.The minister is well and truly Paxmanned!
3rd October 2007 at 1:53 pm
Yeah, but what do you expect? Democracy is dead in this country - gone the way of our liberty and civil rights. You guys let us all down severely in Scotland as well. I was voting LibDem until you made that Faustian pact with the NuNazi party to scupper Alex Salmond. You showed your colours there, you establishment Vichy traitors.
3rd October 2007 at 3:38 pm
John D: And the transcript is where exactly?
3rd October 2007 at 5:35 pm
Democracy Now! manage a transcript and very quickly on a daily basis with far fewer resources than the Beeb. So Newsnight definitely should.
(That’s if Gavin Esler has time between abusive letter writing-
http://medialens.org/alerts/07/070926_i_fascist_robot.php )