Blair at Iraq inquiry

Blair came off as expected.

We knew nothing new would come out and unsurprisingly it didn’t. We know he lied about WMDs, but knew he wouldn’t admit it – he didn’t. We knew he’d stand by his decision – he did.

What is the point of this inquiry again? The facts are largely obvious yet an inquiry will never see the facts. Another absolutely pointless inquiry? Well it wouldn’t be Labour if it had any use…

The inquiry has been happily misdirected by Blair, in his classic master-of-spin manner.

Invoking his typical moralistic highground, he answered none of the questions and generally stated an opinion that a lot agree with: Saddam was bad thus removing him is basically fine.

The thing is, that is actually agreeable. But there are a lot of bad men in the world, most of which we tolerate or even fund – Labour’s cosying up to Gaddafi being a key example.

Being a ‘bad man’ is not necessarily a rock-solid argument for regime change and lying to the country and the world is not excused due to Saddam’s unsatisfactory character.

Any excuse to intrude

Anyone who has regularly used the aeroplane across the last decade will be happy to release an anger-filled tirade about how intrusive and tiresome the whole process has become given half a chance. Boarding a plane has never been easy, but today’s hassle is beyond belief.

Either one queues for ages for the privilege of stowing luggage or attempt to use the computer system yourself which invariably doesn’t recognise your ticket and requires a further queue to sort it out.

Following on from this charade and inevitable further queues, a trip through the scanner is required, separate from your bag. Don’t forget to remove your jacket, shoes, watch, belt and pocket contents before you pass through. Even then, you may require a pat-down or to open your bag and personal contents sifted through.

Don’t expect to be treated well on your re-entry to the country either – however upstanding you may look, you’ll be treated as a potential terrorist.

The farce that accompanies air travel is already unbearable, but true to form Labour are contemplating making it even worse.

“Nude” scanning equipment is being raised as the newest excuse to intrude, showing up an effectively naked image with any odd shapes highlighted. Strip searches were once reserved for the criminal, now everyone flying will have to consent to them.

But what has caused this sudden re-interest in airport invasion into privacy (other than the fact it comes naturally to the government)? Hasn’t our safety record been pretty much flawless in recent times?

The failed Detroit attack is the reason raised by Gordon Brown. A flight from a notoriously safe airport in Ghana through Nigera and Amsterdam connections and on to the USA. But he studied in the UK and might have become an extremist here.

So the logical conclusion to this story would be to increase security on connecting flights from countries with dodgy safety records and to aim to destroy the extremism in our own country that is pussyfooted around. But we get ‘nude’ scanners and increased invasions of privacy instead.

Team EU World Climate Stasi

Gordon to the rescue. Not content with turning the UK into a surveillance state, Gordon’s last chance to leave a legacy other than debt has arrived. Having near bankrupted a golden economy a domestic legacy was never going to be attainable. We all know Gordon feels he saved the world, er the banks, so naturally a global scope for his next horror would ideal.

His newest joke of a suggestion having failed epicly to convince major economies of harsh emissions cuts (quelle surprise), is to propose a completely unelected global body run by the EU, that great bastion of democracy, to spy on other world states.

Time for an election.

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