Question Time - Iraq war

I've just watched a fairly disgusting display by David Blunkett on Question Time. I am sick of seeing and hearing senior Labour ministers attempting to defend the decision to attack Iraq by blaming intelligence failure and claiming that the Government acted in good faith. All the evidence (eg Butler report) is that whilst the intelligence's best guess was an over-estimate of his capability they made it clear that the true position was far from clear. Blair knew that, but this was not reflected in what he said publicly.

It would also appear that Straw directly lied about the legal position when he said there 'there was no question about the legality of the war', when it has emerged that the Home Office thought that it was illegal, and the Attorney General, whilst coming down on the side of legality acknowledged that a very strong case could be made against it, and even the UN Secretary General has publicly stated that he believed that it was illegal.

In any case, even if you accepted that they made an honest mistake (which I don't), you shouldn't get to make a mistake that kills in excess of 100,000 people and keep your job.

David Blunkett, who was caught abusing his position as Home Secretary to fast track his the application of his lover's nanny (and then lying about it afterwards), should be too embarrassed to appear in public and talk about trust.

This is the leadership of the party that Paddy Tipping is a member of, and it reflects very badly on him.