The Main Event: Tony Blair and the Chilcot Inquiry
Here it finally is. This morning at 9:30am, Tony Blair effectively stepped into the dock to be questioned about his role in the Iraq War. The star witness has arrived and hopefully his appearance will finally give the British people closure on arguably the most controversial war since the Vietnam War. Yet there still is a feeling that when the inquiry is all said and done, and confined to the history books, that more evidence will come out. The Thirty Year Rule (Cabinet Papers are released to the public thirty years after they have been written) still applies and there will still be memoranda which will not be released until then.
To be honest, I haven’t really been following the inquiry as intently as most people - some newspapers have followed events in forensic detail - but what we’ve heard so far seems to justify the antiwar protestors’ views, for example that the famous '45 minute claim' was unfounded.
However, I think that when Tony Blair gives his long waited evidence that not all the truth will come out. We all expect Tony Blair to get a very tough grilling and would expect nothing less; PMQs this ain’t, no sense in trying to deflect the question, it will just wear you down. No style over substance, no sound bites; we ask a question, we demand an answer. The image of Tony Blair squirming in his seat probably is the image most people want to see. But I want to see Tony Blair being confident in his answers and, most importantly, telling the truth.
The legal issues around the war have been the focus of the past few days. This is vitally important. In theory, if the war was illegal, then Tony Blair and the Cabinet could be charged for war crimes. But after crawling out of recession, I don’t think Britain wants to be seen crawling into a court. Hopefully people will not hype up Tony Blair’s appearance too much, otherwise they will be sorely disappointed.
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