The Chilcott Report has finally been published. Its 2.6 million words are split into 12 volumes (or 58 pdf files) and in total it's three times longer than the complete works of Shakespeare. The Executive Summary is 150 pages long.
You can download it for free but if you want a hard copy it'll cost you £767.
The purpose of the report was to answer two seemingly straightforward questions:-
- whether it was right and necessary to invade Iraq in March 2003
- whether the UK could - and should - have been better prepared for what followed:-
As we now know, it's taken a good few years and 2.6 million words to answer these two questions and as for the cost, well, that will surely run into millions of pounds.
What were the conclusions of the report? Well you can read them here.
As far as I'm concerned the Iraq war, and its aftermath, is possibly the biggest British cock up of my lifetime. Whatever rivals it may have in terms of incompetence, ineptitude and lack of foresight the loss of life that resulted from it is truly appalling.
There those whose only comment now is "We had to get rid of Saddam". I am, frankly, amazed at the shallowness of such denial and as I write this I remember a comment made on live TV by the former Labour MP, Oona King: "Anyone who is against the war is a supporter of Saddam".
It's almost as if everything about this whole episode beggars belief.
What's going to happen now in the wake of the report's publication? No-one really knows but my money is on sod all.
Within hours of the EU Referendum result being announced, the leaders of the Leave campaign were backtracking on their "promises" to the electorate. There is plenty of evidence for this all over the internet : all you have to do is Google the phrase "leave backtracking promises" and you'll see what I mean.
Fast forward a week or so and the "Brexiters" are also claiming that the other side lied. We now have a situation that whereby the whole business could best be described by "Lies, damned lies and the Referendum". Both sides are sticking to their respective guns despite the fact it looks like that politicians lied to us on an unprecendented scale. It's easy to form the opinion that there were more lies told than in a General Election campaign and that takes some doing.
Meanwhile, we are urged to "Keep Calm and Carry On" : no-one is saying for how long, probably because no-one actually knows.
There has, however, been one very quick change in the political landscape since the Brexit vote : Cameron has resigned and the P.M.'s job is up for grabs. The front runner, as I write this, is Theresa May who is generally considered somewhat to the right of Cameron. If she does get the job then the Brexit vote will have achieved one thing : it will have shifted the government significantly to the right. With Labour MP's rebelling against their elected leader, it is difficult to see this governmental shift to the right being corrected in the near or medium term future.
So, Brexiters, well done! You've just made the government more right wing. And if you think that is something that will benefit the country as a whole then I'm afraid you're badly wrong.
