Chilcot. See you in court ?

Blair at the Chilcot thing may make good viewing, but as always, it'll come down to the lawyers.

Straw, Goldsmith, Sir Michael Wood and Elizabeth Wilmshurst.

Goldsmith's timely pre-war change of heart gets the armed forces off the hook - without his confirmation that the invasion was legal, our armed forces would be liable for prosecution (on an individual basis) and no-one would have asked the armed forces to invade - the likes of Colonel Tim Collins would simply tell you to fuck off. No legal basis for war = no war.

All well and good for the services, but what of

Yesterday, Sir Michael Wood (Goldsmith's deputy) told the enquiry he felt there was no legal basis for the war. Sir Michael's former deputy, Elizabeth Wilmshurst was crystal clear on the lack of legality. She's the only civil servant to have resigned over the issue.

Sir Michael's opinion was rejected by Straw on these grounds, documented in his written response ;

1) There's room in the issue for genuine disagreement
2) International law is "uncertain".
3) With legal uncertainties in the past, Straw had proceeded and gone on to win in court.
4) On the Iraq invasion issue, there is no international court of law.

Sir Michael reasoned that because there was no court, it's incumbent on members of the international community to act scrupulously. It would appear Straw's inclination was that in the absence of a court to answer to, the decision was for Blair/Parliament and history will be the judge.

Either way, the enquiry is specifically there to find out "what lessons can be learned", its legal powers to hold participants to account are essentially non-existent - we should be used to that by now. For those of you who aren't, Monbiot is campaigning for a citizens arrest of Blair (as per Tatchell/Mugabe). It's legal standing has yet to be tested and there's only one way to do that....   you'll find the man you're after at The Queen Elizabeth Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London, SW1P 3EE this coming Friday. Probably best not to catch up with him on his way in.

Straw... don't forget...

The Ministry has had it's run-ins with Straw before...



....and he seemed to be fairly frank in front of the enquiry. Unkind souls have been quick to remind us that on leaving our interview with him we were initially bedazzled, only to find the rhetoric unwound under close scrutiny. These same critics were also quick to remind us of this...



Banning an FOI request for the release of cabinet discussions on the legality of war on the grounds of "serious damage to the work of government... and that outweighs the public interest". Really ? We're taking bets as to whether this makes it onto this years manifesto ?

Ministry loses it's bet

No Griffin walkout so we're down a few quid, but who's counting. If that's a platform for the BNP - give us more.

Admittedly, Griffin got off lightly. Not that it was a shabby performance from the other panelists, but none of them squarely nailed him to a post, drove the points home, boxed him into a corner. Griffin managed to keep his cool and to some degree looked like a victim as opposed to a victim because of his rhetoric and values. Jack Straw never quite hammered and pressed the opportunities when he could have, a more effective rebuttal to Griffin's Holocaust denial explanation would have been "what sort of person, let alone party leader denies the Holocaust in the first place, then says he's re-evaluated his position after seeing transcripts of intercepted radio transmissions". Easy to say that with 20/20 hindsight. Time was short and I suspect more's needed for a thorough dissection of the Griffin animal.

Still, it was interesting to see that despite many political differences, in face of the BNP there's much more the other parties agree, than disagree on - especially when it comes to core values. This could easily have unwound when Straw copped out on Labour's culpability for the BNP getting votes, but Warsi quickly scored points by reigning him in and with the BNP in the room, it felt like Straw wasn't inclined to attempt spinning a way out of it.

Full score to the BBC for standing up to the nay-sayers and providing the opportunity. Evidently there's been no bloodbath or surge of support for the BNP (perhaps a little premature to make a call on the latter) in the aftermath of giving them a platform so perhaps the likes of Peter Hain, Livingstone and Alan Johnson will accept the public's not so stupid as to need their censorship protection from unconscionable views.

This'll be appointment viewing

Much is at stake here - the rise of fascism, racism etc. versus the ability of Jack Straw, the other panelists and audience to expose the BNP on national TV. Thrown into the mix is censorship, don't give 'em a platform etc. and probably the career of the BBC's Director General. There may be the smallest of chances that Nick Griffin will perform well - the consequences of which are too dire/embarrassing for all to contemplate.

Weirdly, we find ourselves in agreement with Gordon (it's the BBC's decision) Brown . Weirder still is to find ourselves rooting for Jack Straw. Both are in direct opposition to the likes of Peter Hain, Alan Johnson and Ken (chair of the United Against Fascism League) Livingstone - who's words of wisdom condemn the BBC's decision with nanny-state logic...  we must control, censor and legislate - the public are too stupid to think for themselves etc. He told Radio 4

"if anyone is hurt tonight the BBC will bear moral responsibility for that," adding that he felt the broadcaster had "lost its moral compass".

"Unlike any other party, when Nick Griffin speaks or when they get elected in an area, what we see is an increase in racial attacks. It's a long pattern not just with the BNP but with the national front before them. He goes and says his bit ... but for the angry racist it's the trigger that turns into an attack.

"We first saw this when Enoch Powell made his 'rivers of blood' speech there was a huge surge in attacks on black conductors on our buses and that's why you apply a different standard to the BNP to those parties that do not legitimise this sort of violence against minorities."

Err...., No Ken. You get racially motivated violence because some people are idiots and violent with it. If they didn't have a TV show exposing the BNP as idiots to spark violence it'd be something else.

No word from the Cameron benches on support or otherwise for the BBC. Pussies to a man.

There's money changing hands at Ministry Towers over whether there'll be a walkout from one of the panelists. Mine's on Griffin, it'll be his last resort to any semblance of dignity.

Meet the BNP

Much gnashing of teeth at Ministry Towers over the BNP on Questiontime.

In the blue corner we have the Peter Hain ™ world - it's a disgrace, legitimising racism, a platform to prejudice and the traditional "I refuse to pay my license fee".

In the red corner we have, "this is exactly why I pay my license fee".

BNP leader, Nick Griffin,  pelted with eggs wishes his Daddy was there to protect him.

Sadly, no-one knows who his father is.

This writer currently finds himself more and more with the reds. The BNP were legitimised by the electorate - end of story. The BBC didn't do that, the voters did, and the BBC is now giving them a platform to combat the very reason they were legitimised, Peter Hain and his logic.

During befuddled days at university, I was part of a group that monitored racist activity on campus. This involved attending various BNP get-together's, knees ups, concerts (the charming band Screwdriver were standard fare) and meetings. Once you've seen this bunch up close and in action, if the bile coming out of their mouths wasn't so revolting you'd never keep a straight face - and laughing at them would've resulted in a good kicking.

Once you've heard these guys speak, attempt to run a meeting, organise leaflet distribution etc. you'd realise what a complete joke they are. You'd realise that their total lack of ability is a direct reflection of anybody who can square such ridiculous policies and vile rhetoric with any notion of logic, any notion of what it is to be human.

Voters legitimised the BNP for two reasons ;

1) Partly as a reaction to the appalling performance and credibility of the mainstream parties directly after the expenses scandal

2) Primarily because voters have never seen them in direct confrontation with mainstream parties or an audience with a combined IQ over 30.

The Ministry has had it's disagreements with Jack Straw in the past, but having smelt the BNPs breath and got a taste of what they're made of, they're "substance", I'm confident he'll take them to pieces, alongside the audience. Much as I love the sight of Nick Griffin being pelted with eggs, the BBC are doing exactly what's needed - giving them a rope via the opportunity of directly engaging with majority opinion and a semblance of intelligence. Once they've met the BNP, even the very lowest of the lowest fuckwits will question casting another vote in their favour. Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC understands this. Peter Hain, Alan Johnson & Co do not.

This ticket alone's worth the license fee.

Cautious Optimism

We’ve mentioned Gordon Brown’s Green Paper, “the Governance of Britain” before. It’s a statement of intent making all the right noises about strengthening government accountability to Parliament, Freedom of Information etc. Published in July 2007, all we could really say was “time will tell”.

Jack Straw, in a Commons statement yesterday, made announcements that would seem to indicate there may well be some genuine movement in this direction - Freedom of Information especially.

All encouraging news. Our “Elected Representatives (Prevention of Deception) Bill may well be a step too far but Adam Price will be introducing it in the next session and todate we have the support of an extraordinary 31 MPs. It’ll be interesting to see if it’ll get as far as being debated in the house.