Spanner in the Works

9 February 2004


Liberal Democrats Reject Blair's New Iraq Commission

Her Majesty's Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP, PC, announced a new inquiry into the Iraq war having just beaten the BBC with the Hutton Commission Report. The new investigation, led by former cabinet secretary Lord Butler, will look at the intelligence community's failure and find out what went wrong. Sadly for Mr. Blair, the Liberal Democrats won't drink the Kool-Aid and play along.

The Lib Dems led by Mr. Charles Kennedy want the commission to look not only into the intelligence but also into the political use to which it was put. In short, the party is saying that there was likely bad judgment as well as bad intelligence. The PM's response is that the government was exonerated by Lord Hutton's report, and so, it will not revisit the matter.

Of course, what makes this so politically important is the attitude of the Tories. Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan-Smith backed the decision to go to war, and current leader Michael Howard studiously avoided the Hutton Report and Iraq during Wednesday's Question Time in the House of Commons. He demand for Mr. Blair's resignation came on Radio Four, not from the Despatch Box.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kennedy's MPs were the peace party. While it is unlikely that the Tories would help Mr. Blair survive, they don't want their own misjudgments assessed in advance of the next election. Most Britons opposed the war, most still oppose it and the following occupation, and Lord knows how many Lib Dem votes that will turn into should the government and the leading opposition both get egg on their respective faces. Perhaps enough to make the Lib Dems the official opposition in the next parliament.

This difficulty resonates across the Atlantic, too. Mr. Bush has scheduled his own inquiry that will report after the election in November. Mr. Blair's will publish its findings in July. Whatever Lord Butler uncovers, Mr. Bush and his Democratic opponent will be most interested to use it in the campaign.

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