Wednesday, February 21, 2007

War on Iraq: Tony Blair to Announce De-vasion Today (Wednesday)



HERE with a hat tip to Newsnight Tom at Newer Labour who first blogged this.

Hurrah, if it's true or even if it is half true.

Confining all to barracks and shipping them home a.s.a.p. still seems a pretty righteous course of action. But we'll take what we can get.

Lovely colouring on this official LATW logo, doncha think? I thank you, I thank you.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

end the war. bring the troops home.

Tom said...

Ah, Chris.

Have you read this?

"Looking forward, there can be no question of supporting Bush in any similar interventions. "

"the neo-liberal policies imposed on Iraq by the US after the war have been a disaster. We need to find a way of ending the occupation and bringing the troops home without Iraq descending even further into chaos. I also think that the way the intelligence was manipulated before the war started was unforgivable. The government needs to admit openly the mistakes it made, and apologise."

Time to forgive? I think we should acclaim those who were pro-war and change their stripes. People make mistakes.

Moreover, how many Opus Dei members do you know who hve the strongest pro-choice vote in parliament? And if they do, what does their religion matter? Furthermore, if you would like a catagorical denial of Opus Dei membership, I can direct you to one, provided that you are on facebook.

Too much Jeremy Corbyn is bad for your health. And bad for the left, to boot.

Anonymous said...

Why am I thinking anti-war demo Saturday might have something to do with timing of this?

Chris Paul said...

Thanks for the link El Tom. I have seen this interview and others before. Clearly I have more time for those that have recanted their pro-war votes than those who have not.

However I really would like to see people who were anti-war at the time and throughout on the ballot. To be blunt I believe that the evidence was so very thin and so very taken apart by the Rangwala/Simpson alternative dossier which was first published in September 2002 in Labour Left Briefing. And also circulated widely in free standing form.

Around six months before the key votes. I don't think the Labour Party can afford to select a leadership who missed this or deluded themselves that the Blair dossier was correct or voted yes on regime change grounds which was at best premature. The party NEED the alternative case put by leader and deputy candidates IMO.

On the question of Opus Dei I'm not sure if I know any members or fellow travellers (known as Cooperators) or not. My own parents are devout Roman Catholics and could be members for all I know. Perhaps I should ask them. My kid brother too. We all have our cross to bear.

On the Cruddas votes on gay rights and pro-choice I'm sure that you know that he is a long way from being alone as a practising RC MP voting this way?

I'm not sure where the Cruddas is OD meme came from but not in my case directly from JC.

I did join Facebook a few months ago and tried to set up a City of Manchester group. But something went awry with the promised correspondence and it didn't happen. Will revisit.

Chris Paul said...

Mmmm, Susan. Blair has shown no sign of making his announcements to spike the guns of StWC. There have been a series of announcements trailing this one, and in Des Browne's case also trailing an enquiry ...

Anonymous said...

Ming Campbell just asked the PM a question on social housing.
Will Labour be atacked from the left on this in Withington - and elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

yes, despite hype turns out nothing new in Blair announcement at all - in fact troops coming home has been delayed in terms of numbers.See, even seasoned cynics like me can still get taken in by Number 10 spin as heard on BBc this morning.......will still be in London on Saturday......

Manchester University Labour Club said...

Chris, it is dead easy to use facebook. Give it another try.

Anonymous said...

we will be attacked from the left on everything by Leech in Withington. Thats is why we can't select someone who si identified as closely with Blair and number 10 as one of the candidates undoubtedly is.

Chris Paul said...

So do you, LLoL - pah! - think there's mileage in somehow attracting the Tories across to Labour and letting Leech have the lefties? That doesn't seem like a very good option to me. Doomed.

Anonymous said...

Thats not what I was saying. I think that we should select a candidate who isn't identified closely with the now widely disliked (rightly or wrongly) Blair Project. We can't select someone who is pro-war, iffy on Trident and is seen as part of the No 10 inner circle. This would be as unacceptable to our core voters as it would be to those who regard themselves as socially "liberal". It's not about Tories. They are dead and buried in the part of the world and it will take more than a bounce from Boy David to breathe life into that corpse.