*Ø* Waiting for Butler

From the Guardian:

A government cannot go to war on a false pretext. Either Blair apologises - or there must be a change of leader

"We're in the middle of what they said would be Tony's week from hell. Whether it's turning out that way, we'll know better at lunchtime today, when former cabinet secretary Robin Butler delivers his ruling on the way intelligence was used in the lead-up to the war against Iraq. We'll have an even clearer idea in the small hours of Friday morning, thanks to the results of two by-elections in what should be safe Labour territory, in Leicester and Birmingham. If Butler and the Midlands electorate give the prime minister a kicking, he might respond by doing some kicking of his own - by booting out a minister or two and engaging in that great summer sport: the reshuffle ...

... "The plain truth is this: British troops went to kill and be killed last year on a false premise. We were told Saddam had WMD and he did not; we were told he was a threat to us and he was not. So far that act has brought no consequences on its perpetrators.

"Those who made bad errors in shedding light on the act - at the BBC and the Daily Mirror - have paid for their errors. But for the act itself, there has been no punishment. This suggests a failure of our very system of governance: it allowed a government to go to war in defiance of its people and on a false pretext and get away with it. The system needs to prove that it can correct itself - and to do it soon." [My emphasis - N]

j.freedland@guardian.co.uk

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