The magical disappearing Iraqi troop withdrawal

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd October 2007 - 10:59 pm

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First it was 2,000 British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq (the figure leaked to the BBC).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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10 Comments

Tinter 3rd Oct '07 - 12:09am

Is there a citation for the last one? A (very) quick glance at the news sites doesn’t provide corroboration
Tim Ireland 3rd Oct '07 - 12:10am

Silly Prime Minister. Germany is not home.
Mark Pack 3rd Oct '07 - 7:54am

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.
Letters From A Tory 3rd Oct '07 - 8:40am

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?
Tim Ireland 3rd Oct '07 - 8:59am

A quick aside: I think Newsnight should provide online transcripts of key interviews/segments as a matter of course.
Chris Paul 3rd Oct '07 - 9:36am

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.
John D 3rd Oct '07 - 12:39pm

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!
Antipholus Papps 3rd Oct '07 - 1:53pm

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.
Tim Ireland 3rd Oct '07 - 3:38pm

John D: And the transcript is where exactly?
RickB 3rd Oct '07 - 5:35pm

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 )