| January 30th 2010 |
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Blair at Iraq Inquiry - Protest
Joined the protest outside the Iraq Inquiry yesterday, at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in Westminster. Tony Blair was giving evidence.
True to his nature as the supreme snake-oil salesman, he slipped into the inquiry and slipped out by a back door. He did not face the protestors. Natural behaviour for a coward, I suppose. There wasn't a huge number of protesters there, but the protest was from 8am to 6pm (about the time most people went away, but I was there 'til nearer to 7pm). So people came and went during the day. Plus there was pockets of protestors around the building, not all being in the same place at the same time. The reason for the protests around the building was because we were not certain where Blair would come out. Naturally for Teflon Tony, he would want to slither away from his critics. This he did successfully with the help of a huge police presence. No-one saw him leave. When I left, most of the coppers had left, most of the protestors had left and some of the media were packing up. I still think he was in the building. Could be wrong, but I can't see how he got away without being seen. I was determined to see him because I wanted to shout at him, so I hung about for as long as I could, but it was bloody freezing, Friday night, most people gone away...so eventually I did the same thing. I'll tell you what bugs me. All the media could talk about was Blair's "performance". It's not a fucking theatre, it's an inquiry (ostensibly) into the mass slaughter of innocent Iraqis. Mind you, for Blair it probably is a performance, but the media shouldn't encourage it. Witnesses aren't there to perform, they are there to answer questions. Blair came across as the master bullshitter that he is, and sadly a lot of gullible people buy it. I should say, we couldn't hear his evidence at the demonstration, I heard quite a bit of it on the radio earlier. Nothing new in it. He must have mentioned Security Council resolutions, and Iraq being in breach of them, about 100 times. That's interesting. There is no country more in defiance of Security Council resolutions than Israel, but I don't recall him saying we should attack them. In any event, the resolutions in question, did not authorise the use of force and for this reason, the Foreign Office lawyers advising Blair, said an attack would be illegal. This of course he ignored, just as he ignored the million demonstrators in London pre-attack. He did however, dutifully obey one Texan oilman. Posted in categories Events Places Politics Post URL http://londontownblog.com/posts.php?post=39 |
