From: William Gladys <william.gladys@tiscali.co.uk>
Date: Sat, Jan 22, 2011 at 4:50 PM
Subject: Fw: Tony Blair is left without a sofa to hide behind at the Iraq Inquiry
To: world_Politics@googlegroups.com
Tony Blair is left without a sofa to hide behind at the Iraq Inquiry
What an actor! What an advocate! What a salesman! Tony Blair's performance at the Iraq Inquiry reminded us how formidable his powers of persuasion used to be, but also confirmed how feeble they have become.
By Andrew Gimson 5:28PM GMT 21 Jan 2011
In vain the former Prime Minister tried to seize control of the argument and frame it in such a way as to give himself the best chance of success. Mr Blair is no longer dealing with a moving story, about which he can claim to be possession of superior knowledge, but with an event, the invasion of Iraq, about which his inquisitors have the facts at their fingertips.
How politely Sir Roderic Lyne said to Mr Blair: "What is not clear is at what point you were actually asking the Cabinet to take decisions."
As far as the invasion of Iraq was concerned, the Cabinet was marginalised, for as Sir Roderic said, most of its members were not even given the information they would have needed in order to make up their minds, had they been asked to do so: "If you're not seeing the policy papers, are you in a position to make a decision?"
Mr Blair looked older but no wiser. His lightly tanned temples were covered in a thin layer of sweat and a television camera picked up one of his thumbs trembling uncontrollably.
How convenient, and even clever, it must have seemed at the time to bypass the Cabinet, but the trouble with sofa government is that you cannot hide behind the sofa when things go wrong. Sir Roderic reminded Mr Blair that the practice during his prime ministership was to hold informal meetings, "ad hoc with a small 'a' and a small 'h' as you put it."
Mr Blair replied: "I had the right people there." The former prime minister said many other things too, few of which had any bearing on the inquiries which were being made. When challenged in the Commons, Mr Blair was a master of changing the subject to one where victory was assured, but such evasions did not work for him here.
The former Prime Minister attempted, by the use of emollient language, to reduce the gulf between himself and the members of the inquiry. When the role played by Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney-General, was raised, Mr Blair agreed it would have been better if this law officer "could have been sensitised to the evidence" by being shown what it was. This made Lord Goldsmith sound like a piece of steak which had to be tenderised by being pounded before it was cooked.
The invaluable Sir Roderic wondered whether Mr Blair was aware that Lord Goldsmith felt "discouraged" from giving formal, written advice on the legality of the war.
Mr Blair replied: "The only concern is generating bits of paper the whole time." How dreadful it would have been if the world's forests had been depleted, and the British Prime Minister's time wasted, by Lord Goldsmith using too much paper.
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Palash Biswas
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