Blair 'Should Face Commons Probe over Iraq'

MPs fighting to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq war tonight demanded he face a House of Commons inquiry. The group want a select committee to be set up to examine the Prime Minister’s conduct in relation to the war. They want it to consider if there are sufficient grounds to impeach him on charges of gross misconduct.

Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price has started the campaign to impeach the premier. Now 23 MPs have put their names to a motion calling for the inquiry. The motion, given to the Independent on Sunday, calls for a committee to consider Mr Blair’s conduct. It says it should consider the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s declaration that the war was illegal.

It says the committee should also consider if there were sufficient grounds to impeach Mr Blair on charges of “gross misconduct in his advocacy of the case for war and in his conduct of policy in connection with that war”. Commons speaker Michael Martin must now rule on whether the motion can be tabled for debate by MPs. Former Tory Cabinet minister Douglas Hogg is in charge of drafting the motion.

He told the IoS: “We have discussed the wording of the motion with the House authorities and we believe that it is in a form in which it can be properly placed on the order paper. “This is a significant move forward in our attempt to bring the Prime Minster to account for his duplicitous action with regards to Iraq.”

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3726598

This is some of the best news I've seen all week.

I mean, care to explain what you mean?

...fascism we have in the US when Tories inevitably take back gov't.

*shudder*

overt.

They're pretending it's an attack from the left, when it's really from the right.

Repeated for emphasis.

middle and working class.

You know how America is fucked up enough that Bush can win elections (granted, just barely) without having to abandon their fascistic politics? Well, Blair is hanging on and changing society so that fascist Tories can't get elected unless they abandon some of their wealth and power concentrating policies.

It may not sound sexy, and therefore might not be apparent to many, but it's a critical battle against the RW and Blair is winning it in Britain. He just needs to finish this term and pass the reigns to someone else who's even better than him -- and that person won't be Brown, but it will be someone from within Labour and not the Lib Dems. And of course it will be someone who repudiates Blair's actions in Iraq, but that's not what's happening right now. But that's not what's happening right now. The right wing know that Blair is on the brink of changing society permanently for the better and that's why they're so eager to impeach right now. Oh, and Bush and the media will be gunning for him big time. The attack now comes from the right.

I'm sufficiently confindent in my opinions about what's going on in the UK that I'm not going to debate back and forth with people who don't get it or the seventhsons here who do. Suffices to say, I told you what to look for.

The Tories are desperate to get back in power and will use any means to achieve that end. There is also quite a bit of evidence that US GOP right wingers are going to support their efforts. You can already see the conservative media in the UK limbering up for the task. The Tories are complete hypocrites and will use Iraq to attack Blair even though they voted for the war in Parliament. Every one should be aware that a Conservative government under Michael Howard is going to even more accommodating to Bush than the current Labour administration. The Tories are not known as the 'nasty' party for nothing.

On the bright side demographics in Britain do not favour the Conservatives. The Tories have largely become confined to their traditional strongholds in rural areas and the south east of England. They have almost no representation in the major cities, Scotland and Wales. Unless they can win marginal constituencies in the metropolitan areas they have no chance of winning a majority in the House of Commons. In recent Parliamentary by-elections the Conservatives have come third twice and fourth once. This is not the performance of a party about to take power. By the way any GOP fanatics who think that they might try to influence UK politics would also do well to note that appeals to Jesus or any other religious leader are likely to be met with indifference if not hostility in Britain. The Major government tried this approach in the early 1990's with its campaign to impose 'family values'. The whole exercise descended into farce when it was discovered the government was full of philanderers and sexual deviants. It later transpired that while Major was spouting his moral platitudes he was conducting an affair with Edwina Currie, another member of his cabinet.

Should by some terrible misfortune the Tories actually gain power at the next General Election Howard is is going to be faced with national assemblies in Scotland and Wales that will be hostile to his government. I am rather looking forward to the time when anti-European Conservatives who are always insisting that they do not want to be governed by Brussels are confronted by Scottish and Welsh Parliaments who have decided that they do not want to be governed from London. It is possible that when that day comes you might find the UK breaking up into its component parts.

to us.

But I do appreciate the rare post acknowledging this as a risk.

n/t

Call me when you do it.

I think it is the EU without Britain that will be the force that will bring bush to his knees. Seeing as Blair is already on his knees to bush he will have to go further down to flat on his ass.

Two guys who are helping the right wing whether they have a job or whether they lose their jobs.

the House of Commons is going to get rid of Bush's partner in crime.

The Bush*s got another Scotch Terrier to go with their original one, Barney. They don't yet have another poodle to go with Tony Blair.

Apologies to Jay Leno.

The text of the draft motion that the MPs will seek to table later this month reads:

"That a select committee of not more than 13 members be appointed to investigate and to report to the house on the conduct of the Prime Minister in relation to the war against Iraq and to consider;

"(a) the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group that in March 2003 Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction and had been essentially free of them since the mid-1990s;
(b) the Prime Minister's acknowledgement that he was wrong when he asserted that Iraq was then in possession of chemical or biological weapons or was then engaged in active efforts to develop nuclear weapons or was thereby a current or serious threat to the UK national interest or that possession of WMD then enabled Iraq to inflict real damage upon the region and the stability of the world;

"(c) the opinion of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was unlawful;

"(d) whether there exist sufficient grounds to impeach the Rt Hon Tony Blair on charges of gross misconduct in his advocacy of the case for war against Iraq and in his conduct of policy in connection with that war.

"That the committee shall within 48 days of its appointment report to this house such resolutions, articles of impeachment or other recommendations as it shall think fit."

Tony Blair will fly to Washington this week where he will urge George Bush to increase pressure on Israel to reach a settlement with the Palestinians. He will insist that justice for the Palestinians is as vital in the international war against terrorism as bringing stability to Iraq. When the Prime Minister congratulated the US President on his re-election last week, he added that revitalising the Middle East peace process is "the single most pressing political challenge in our world today". He also told Mr Bush that terrorism "will not be defeated by military might alone but also by demonstrating the strength of our common values". His statement will form the agenda for their talks when he visits Washington on Thursday and Friday, Downing Street said last night.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=580357

Pen the criminal up in a villiage commons with a coupla angus bulls
and some tupps to probe him deep and hard. I'm sure they'll find
something... if we're lucky, he might even drop a calf. ;-)