Friday, May 11, 2007

Tony Blair

So Tony Blair is finally on the way. So maybe it's time for a few thoughts. And the big one is this, first of all lets put Iraq to one side for a moment, it's important to do so. Because if you do then Tony Blair is the best Prime Minister that I have lived under. True there have only been 4 of them (and one of them, Harold Wilson, only for a few months). The Conservatives, who were in power for more or less my entire childhood were disastrous. I wont go in to it, just accept it they were a shambles. Then along came Tony Blair.

He has not been perfect. I have not agreed with all his main policies. Tuition fees, partial privatisation of many public services. At the same time though, things like the national minimum wage, banning hunting with dogs, gay marriage, stake holder pensions. These have all been fantastic, and while I would prefer to have seen some Liberal Democrats policies, Labour have done a pretty good job and I would always prefer them to the Conservatives.

That is with Iraq put to one side. Now lets consider Iraq.

The most important decision any leader can make is weather to go to war or not. It means the decision between life and death for many people. And the only body able to prevent that decision, under our constitution is Parliament. Parliament is the ultimate sovereign body in the UK. So for anyone to lie to it is a very serious matter. And to lie to it when convincing them to support a war, particularly a controversial one that is a long way from overwhelming public support is frankly unforgivable.

And that is what Tony Blair did.

He told Parliament that we KNOW that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Now "believe" or "suspect" or "have reason to believe." No, he used the word KNOW.

Now tell me exactly how many weapons have been found? Actually no, not exactly, just a an approximation, just a round number.

Ah!

Hold on!

I can do both, an accurate number and a round number. In fact its the roundest number of all. It's 0. Nil. Zip. None. Nothing.

He said he knew what was untrue.

HE LIED TO PARLIAMENT.

And that is why I am glad he has gone because I can now consider voting for Labour again (and that depends quite simply on whether I believe they have the best policies or not come election time) with a clean conscience.

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