Clare Short, the Minister for International Development who resigned (a long time after threatening to) from the Cabinet over the Iraq war is giving a bracing alternative version to Tony Blair's. She's always been halfway between a machine politician and a maverick, and Iraq was probably her finest moment.
So far, she's said:
Blair lied about war planning
He ignored Cabinet government
The attorney-general misled the cabinet about the legal basis for the war
Brown had nothing to do with it - it was all Blair's fault.
I do think Blair took all the decisions on his own, but she can't wriggle out of it. She helped found New Labour, she was part of the leadership team which made all the decisions, and she is bright enough to know that Cabinet Ministers still wield power and influence. She eventually resigned, but only after conniving in a lot of other mean-spirited and illiberal actions, and after the war had started. Sainthood isn't conferred for leaving halfway through - it's conferred for resisting evil in the first place.
3 comments:
Finest moment? Are you doing one of those subtle sarcasm bits that we don't get?
Short sold out the entire protest. She threatened to resign but instead sat quietly while we illegally invaded Iraq. Then she was mysteriously given the international development position. Cynically using a war to further her own career - surely this can only be described as her finest moment in purely Machiavellian terms.
The implication was that after seeing certain information she changed her mind on Iraq. A pity that information was how much more money she would earn in her new job.
Of course, as she had lost all legitimacy having failed to resign before the invasion, she effectively transferred that lack of respect to her new job. She thought only of herself and was played like the sucker she was.
She was one of the worst politicians in the last fifteen years. A liar and the very worst kind of hypocrite.
Yes, I was being dryly satirical. I agree with everything you say. She's particularly awful because she has posed for so long as Labour's leftwing conscience with little regard for what she actually did. Robin Cook, on the other hand, did resign before the war started…
well done benjamin - you have eloquently put all the things I was thinking - I remember on THE march her name was treated with widespread derision - as it should be.
Left wing - bollocks
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