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Hey come on, it's easy to judge the consequences of the decision to go to war in Iraq with hindsight. Just as it was with foresight. Like loads of people did.
I can’t say that I was exactly one of them though. I remember being a bit sceptical about it, but ultimately it was Blair’s willingness to do something that would make him unpopular that made me feel he must know something pretty fucking scary. Even though he had had a huge mandate for change, he had pussy-footed his way around and made no radical changes and seemed constantly to fear upsetting anyone (showing why maybe why my government of the middle ground idea is flawed - you have to be willing to upset some of the people to govern effectively). Chilcot has taken an awful long time to write his 12 volume report (though I am pretty certain that he could have just written an introduction page and a conclusion page and filled the rest with blah blah blah and no one would have noticed), but this blog has been going for marginally longer, so we can find out if I was one of the heroes who knew/guessed that the WMD claim was bullshit, or if I supported the actions of what some people would now call “a cabal of war criminals”.
Predictably I sat on the fence.
Here’s the entry about it. Charmingly (and proving the length of time this enquiry has taken to come out) I seemed to get my news from Ceefax back then. And yes, it’s clear that I thought Blair must know something, though now it seems he was just in love with George W Bush. The movie tagline of "I'll be with you, whatever,” would be more romantic if the whatever didn’t involve destabilising a volatile region of the planet and basically creating IS. It’s not like we really need any more evidence of how fucked our democracy is, or how we have played into the hands of those who seek to destroy us (and when stuff like this comes out it is hard to really blame them - though I still manage to, because they’re fuckwits too obviously), but nice to have it anyway.
My new favourite thing in the world is what my daughter does when I say “What does a lion say?” Her gleeful, angry, but still baby-like roar is the most brilliant sound on earth. She’s a whirlwind of noise and motion right now and it’s getting exhausting and terrifying looking after her, but it is just the most fun in the world. I took her to her swimming class for the first time in ages today. She’s a lot more confident in the water, but is justifiably still a bit scared by it all. Her independence deserts her and she clings on to me with fear and although it may be wrong to enjoy your own child’s terror, it’s so lovely for her to show that she needs me (very occasionally) and to hug me that strongly.
But mainly I am impressed by how bold she is and how much she understands. She’s a tiny lion cub with the most ridiculous and brilliant roar.
RHLSTP with Doc Brown aka Ben Bailey Smith is now up on video
and audio
British Comedy Guide
iTunes
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