Stephen Tall

Better late than never?

By | Mon 11th June 2007 - 1:53 pm

The Tories have today called for an inquiry into the war in Iraq, with shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague arguing, according to the BBC, it should be along the lines of the wide-ranging inquiry into the Falklands War.

Sound familiar? Yep. Here’s why:

Tony Blair claims his Government has been open and straightforward on Iraq. But every piece of information has been wrung out of them in the face of stiff resistance.
It took the death of David Kelly before, at the Hutton Inquiry, we found out the truth behind the dodgy dossier and the infamous 45 minute claim.
It took an announcement from President Bush before Tony Blair would agree to another inquiry, the Butler Inquiry, into what went wrong with the intelligence.
And we have still not had a proper Inquiry into the actions and judgements of ministers themselves – as we did after the Falklands war.
So I call again today for a proper inquiry into how we went to war in Iraq.

Speech by Lib Dem leader, Charles Kennedy, 25th April 2005.

There was even a cross-party call for an inquiry into the conduct of the war – with Ming Campbell, Ken Clarke and Alex Salmond among the signatories – in November 2005. You can find the list of the names of those who signed here.

You will search in vain for the names of David Cameron and William Hague.

It’s good the Tories are finally acknowledging the need for an inquiry (albeit at an unspecified point in the future). Even better if they’d recognised years ago the damage their backing of the invasion of Iraq would have on the people of that country, and the rest of the Middle East.

Read more by or more about .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

One Comment

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Chambers
    > Clearly the aircraft carriers were a pork barrel for Gordon Brown’s constituency. Doubtful. More to do with the US "pivot to Asia". The UK does not have...
  • Mark ValladaresMark Valladares
    @ Matt (Bristol), You use the word “vanguardism” as though politicians don’t have an obligation to lead, rather than merely following the loudest voice...
  • Mark Smulian
    I first worked with Michael on his three pamphlets published in the mid-1980s by Liberator and mentioned above by Geoffrey Payne. He was, obviously, an effectv...
  • Geoff Reid
    As well as being at the heart of the best Assembly/Conference coffee room conversations, Michael was for me the best compass we had over half a century. His lea...
  • Margaret Pollus
    @Tristan Ward Trans women are women - biological women. So the Equality Act 2010 needs to ensure that all womens rights, including pregnancy and maternity prote...