Chilcot Inquiry - anyone following it?

[Neatnick]

Just wondering who else is following this?

And what do others think about Jack Straw rejecting his lawyers' advice about the legality of going to war?

Thought the female lawyer today was very impressive.

Just watching it on the news. Tony etc not coming out of this looking good are they?

god it's all unravelling now. elizabeth wilmshurst was fantastic and should be very proud of herself.

it was illegal. whether it was moral or not is, i suppose, open to debate. but it was NOT a legal war.

blair should be tried. it makes a mockery of international law if he isn't.

It doesn't look good, but something tells me that no-one will ultimately be held accountable when the Inquiry's findings are released. The cynic in me tells me that it will come to some wishy washy conclusions that actually blame nobody for the debacle.

Nope not coming out well at all. Tony's due to appear himself on Friday which should be really interesting.

Sophable, so do you think the inquiry will actually announce a verdict on whether the war was illegal or not? People keep saying it's not within the remit, yet it seems to be heading in that direction.

he should, he is a war criminal in my eyes. there was a really good drama on a year or so ago with robert lidsay playing blair and it was about him being tried for war crimes..

i think there will be some accountability, but i think ultimately they are the old boys club and will protect each other.
It will be interesting to see blair on friday. he is a great spin doctor, but want to see how he gets out of this unscathed!

blair will get out of it the way he has all along: by turning his eyes heavenward and convincing whoever is in front of him that 'well, er, yes, erm well, you see, saddam was a very bad man, and erm you see I personally absolutely believed he had WMD. but more importantly, i felt it was my christian duty to save all those poor iraqi people from such a nasty evil tyrant.'

he will convince them that he is morally blemish free...nevermind insignificant detail like legality, obviously the really important thing is that he had the best intentions.

makes my blood boil tbh.

Tony Blair is the single most charismatic PM we have had since Churchill, probably.

He used all of that charm and sincerity to convince everyone about the merits of war. It all turned out to be utter BS.

He is a master of the partial apology, and I'm sure we'll see one on Friday. "Contrite Tone" will make all the headlines, but will nevertheless be utterly convinced the war in Iraq was justified.

Chilcot is a bit of a waste of time. Everyone knows what happened, pretty much. All the stuff about dodgy dossiers and rewritten memos on legality has been public for ages. No-one is going to change their views based on this inquiry.

I predict that tony will say "God will be my judge" or some such other drivel.

I actually physically hate him over this mess.

one of my favourite tv moments ever was paxo asking tony about whether he got down on his knees to pray with bush at camp david...classic moment...tony was so uncomfortable.

in my opinion tony blair is a war criminal, however when they reach whatever conclusions this inquiry was set up for i'm sure they will be careful to cover their backs. what would the implications for the country be if they admitted we invaded ilegally? would there be loads of iraqis suing our govt, or demanding to be allowed to move to the uk because we have wrecked their country? i'm sure all of this will be thought about and blair and co will come out unscathed

the arrest blair website is interesting

particularly this page, despite the tasteless (but rather funny) mock up of blair

Blair will be well rehearsed and will turn in an Oscar winning performance on Friday.

Can't really see the point of the enquiry, will solve nothing, will not ask any question that hasn't been asked a hundred times before.

Love love love the arrest blair website!

The post now stands at about £9400 - about £2350 if you arrest him.

the thing is it really focuses you on the hypocrisy of it all: it's not just serbians etc that are war criminals, it's our own ex PM. who knowingly waged war on a sovereign state illegally. you just cannot do that!

Ye-es but I'm not sure you actually need legal permission to declare war. Surely the Crown (ie the PM and government) can just do it if it feels like it? I would be surprised if Churchill had sought legal advice before declaring war on Germany.

It was important in the specific case of Iraq because there were existing UN resolutions and procedures, and there was no demonstrable imminent threat to the UK (whatever Blair said) but it's not always the case.

Legal arguments v. interesting though, doesn't Goldsmith look like a shower of shit?