On Thursday, Tim Farron, writing for this site, said that Liberal Democrats must continue to push for the Chilcot Report to be published.
In the same way, we must push for the UK’s Chilcot report into the Iraq war to be published. The delay has gone on long enough – key actors like Tony Blair and former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw must be held to account. Jack Straw steps down as an MP in May – it is vital that the truth about Iraq comes out long before that!
Yesterday, Farron told the Times (£) that he had written to Francis Maude asking for the Report to be published within a week of receipt.
It was not only the government of the day that failed miserably as we went into war in Iraq,” Mr Farron told The Times. “The official opposition also failed miserably by trooping through the lobbies to sanction this war. One assumes our coalition colleagues may be a little less keen than we are for this [report] to come out.
“Any additional delay in the publication of this report will be deemed as the establishment sitting on something that might damage it.”
Naming Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary who is stepping down as an MP, he said that waiting until after the election would allow some of those involved in the decision to avoid scrutiny.
“The Iraq war is history, but it is not yet ancient history,” he said. “It is important that the lessons learnt from it are learnt whilst there are people involved in our parliament who are in a position to answer for their actions.”
Farron is clearly keen to inject some energy into his new brief. Nick Clegg has been consistently saying Chilcot should be published as soon as possible. The only people who can hold it back, should it be ready for publication, are the Tories.
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8 Comments
Excellent. A campaign we can all sign up to.
It has been costing us £1million a year to collect dust since the Inquiry ended 3 years ago.
This cover-up has already gone on far too long.
It is 5 years since the Inquiry began and 12 years since the invasion began.
The UK Government is now bombing Iraq again and is sending out troops again this month.
I am delighted that our new spokesperson is campaigning on this.
Well done Tim Farron, keep at it !
The Parliamentary Party appears to be slipping its chains. Bravo.
Yeah – I agree, but would go further.
Chilcott published within a week; Blair and Straw to be charged within a fortnight. I put no strict timetable on their lawful execution.
LOL, I’m with Tsar. I think this is just the kind of thing the new media and brand chap should focus on, now would be a great time to focus back on something the public really loathes about Labour!
How are the members of the Chilcot Inquiry remunerated? Was it pro-bono? Was it a fixed sum? Or was it a daily rate? Do they have an incentive to spin it out as long as possible?
What about clearing the desks and asking for all completed reports to be published. The Black report on the use of dodgy statistics to predict mortality within the Health service is also being suppressed. I am sure, in other fields, there any many more uncomfortable reports that should see the light of day before we lose influence.
Tsar Nicolas calling for execution? Shome mishtake shurely? 🙂
But Bravo, Tim. More power to your elbow. and your knee and boot!
Tony Dawson 11th Jan ’15 – 9:31am
Tsar Nicolas calling for execution? Shome mishtake shurely? 🙂
No, not at all. we executed Saddam. Blair has been responsible for as many, if not more, deaths than the former Iraqi dictator.
Obviously, we couldn’t hang him under British law, but let’s try him under the law of the country he invaded. Heck, I bet we could get rid of the budget deficit if we sold the live screening rights to some outfit like Netflix.