And then, he spun

Tony Blair does not make it easy for those who supported the war to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. The arguments in favour of the war were — and still are — compelling, and the difficulty of Iraq’s journey towards democracy and stability should not obscure the real progress that is being made…

It is clear that Mr Blair had long decided that Saddam Hussein had to go, for perfectly respectable reasons, including a commendable desire to maintain the alliance with Washington at a time of acute international uncertainty. But the Prime Minister did not frame the decision in those terms. He argued that Saddam posed an immediate threat to British troops in Cyprus (which was wrong) and that war was justified on the grounds of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 (which was right, but somewhat tendentious, as the council declined to ratify this argument with a further resolution). When that resolution was not forthcoming, Mr Blair, finding himself in the awkward position of having committed troops to the region and knowing what withdrawal would do to the Atlantic Alliance, resorted to his habitual tactic: he spun…

The publication of Lord Goldsmith’s advice does not undermine the case for the war. It does considerable damage, however, to Mr Blair’s already tattered reputation for probity. As Lord Butler showed in his report, the Prime Minister has adopted a style of government that is not so much presidential as courtly. Business is conducted informally, among a close circle of favourites who do not bear responsibility for the government agencies involved in their discussions. This is not an atmosphere conducive to honesty or good government.

Excerpted from an editorial in ‘The Daily Telegraph’, April 29