So after all the buildup and hype, Tony Blair's appearance in front of the Chilcot inquiry turned out to be one great anti-climax. I'm not really sure what people expected - perhaps they thought he'd break down sobbing as he confessed to deliberate lying to parliament and the people. Was that really likely from "Teflon Tony"?
Personally, I always thought this inquiry was a monumental waste of time and money. We've learned nothing new and the only thing that has come out of it is that civil servants and politicians will say and do whatever they think is necessary for them to save their own skin. Having Blair appear in the dock was really nothing more than a stunt.
What it did do, however, was give those professional protesters a chance to come out on the streets again with their pre-prepared placards, slogans and chants to voice their "disapproval" of Blair's actions.
Which is fine - except .......
Well, how many of those protesting voted for Labour? I suspect that most of them did - and I suspect that most of them will do so again. I suspect that the majority of "anti-war" protesters are Labour supporters who celebrated with gusto when Blair walked into Number 10.
These people are convinced that Tony Blair and the Labour Party lied about going to war against Iraq. They are all convinced that Tony Blair and the Labour Party systematically deceived the people of Britain to pursue personal ambitions for their own ends.
And yet, these same people are prepared to accept that, apart from that, everything else Tony Blair and the Labour Party did was above board and scrupulously honest. Whether it's on the subject of health, education, economics, poverty, immigration or what have you - they all swallow the rhetoric, statistics and "evidence" as indisputable fact as long as it supports their own personal bias.
How can they be so stupid? If Blair and the Labour Party were prepared to lie about something as monumentally important as going to war, don't they realise that they are even more likely to be lying about issues that are less important?
The people who voted for Labour are the ones who elected Labour to power. They are the ones who put Tony Blair into Number 10. If there were warmongers in government, it is they - the Labour voters - who put them there and they are as guilty and as culpable as anyone. For them to then wave banners and chant slogans criticising the government that they chose reeks of hypocrisy.
Not in their name, but only with their help - and those self same people will do it all again on May 6th 2010.
4 comments:
Quite a perceptive observation, Stan, that all these muppets protesting were almost certainly Labour voters. Unfortunately I don't think the Tories would have been any different.
As a side note, off topic, who on earth is this Socrates bloke who was trolling your earlier post? His blog is no better than the demented ramblings of a drugged chimpanzee.
Richard,
The Socrates bloke is quite obviously another NuLabour voter. Probably a social worker. I could tell that when he was spouting off about fictional illnesses.
Stan -
After 9/11, the USA was absolutely determined to hit back at anyone in the middle east, and Blair was told that in no uncertain terms. "You are either with us or agin us" Bush would have said."Now go home and fix it anyway you can or our 'special relationship' will end". And that's what Blair did.
Bush was also under considerable pressure from AIPAC, the biggest Israeli lobby group in America, who wanted a combined military presence in the region to act as a buffer to Iran.
Then there was Iraq's oil...that was a very big incentive too.
All in all, Blair was a mere puppet, albeit reluctant one, with Jack Straw playing devils advocate.
It was a done deal, with no opt-out for anyone.
Maybe, Richard - although I'm no so sure that traditional Tory voters tend to go in for mass organised demonstrations quite so much - probably because they don't have the support groups to back them up. Most of the time, behind these various protests, there lies the invisible hand of professional left wing agitators - unions, CND and their like. Conservatives (small c) just don't have those kind of organisations.
Socrates says he is a "tabloid journalist" - though, if he is, I suspect he is actually a freelancer. Actually, I'm pretty sure I know who he is - and if it is who I think it is then he's one of those people involved in those professional left wing agitator groups I mentioned.
Larry - well, Socrates is entitled to his opinion even if he doesn't think anyone else is.
bernard - an interesting perspective, but it doesn't change anything. The people protesting about Blair's wars are still the same people who handed him the power to take us to war and they will work to ensure that the party which took us to war remains in power after May 6th 2010.
They'll happily swallow anything Labour tell them as long as it suits their own ends - and then winge and moan when they do something they don't like. They accept no responsibility and their attitude stinks of hypocrisy.
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