Porkie Brown Lied Over Defence Cuts

Porkie Brown has been forced to admit lying to Chilcot, parliament and the public over defence spending. Brown sauce spin has come to a sticky end, caught out over defence cuts.

A stunned commons watched with disbelief. Faced with a question from a backbench Tory MP over defence spending, the usual mixture of fudge, denials and useless reams of tractor stats were the order of the day.

Instead a humiliated Brown, chancellor during the Iraq war, was forced to admit spending "did not rise in real terms in one or two years".

"PM admits defence spending error" is Brown's BBC way of putting it. Getting caught out lying though his teeth is another.

To cries of liar, liar, pants on fire, Brown had the bare-faced cheek to tell pals at Chilcot's whitewash the defence budget was "rising in real terms every year", denying starving UK armed forces of equipment.

“The only time the defence budget has been cut was in the 10 years before 1997″, Brown even told a disbelieving commons, faced with questions from Cameron only the other week.

But the truth was out. Figures lodged in the commons library told a different story. The budget had in fact been cut in four years. Brown had lost his wiggle room. Now forced to admit he misled the House and Chilcot over defence spending.

Credit should go to Channel 4 News' Cathy Newman who poured over unearthed new figures after prising out the truth in an FoI request.

Newman reached the cold conclusion: "FactCheck has established that Gordon Brown’s central claim that the defence budget has gone up every year is fiction."

Even the Tory leader was in a state of shock, saying it was the first time in three years he had heard Brown "make a correction or a retraction".

With a masterstroke of spin, Brown had managed to duck the election bogeyman of a Chilcot grilling over starving forces of funds. Insisting that there had been no defence cuts flew in the face of contrary evidence from practically everyone expect his band of New Labour cronies.

Coming under fire from former armed forces chiefs, his own ex-defence secretary, Hoon, and his top MoD official at the time, Tebbit, who told how Brown "guillotined" military spending six months after the invasion.

Even a coroner's verdict and damning public slating of the funding shortfalls came just days after Porkie Brown insisted 'troops had all the equipment they needed'.

Hand-picked Chilcot placemen, working to a tight Downing Street remit with plenty of wiggle room had allowed Brown to get away with murder, despite the massed weight of evidence against him.

Misleading parliament and the public. Telling big Brown lies to Chilcot. The least that should happen is for Porkie Brown to be forced to make a return trip to Chilcot or face commons censure.

But fresh calls for Brown to come clean and face the music will fall on deaf ears, with Chilcot and parliament set to enter purdah this side of the election.

What is left is the disgrace of a discredited prime minister. A dab hand at ducking responsibility. Now no longer allowed to get away droning on with endless denials to fudge the facts in the dying days of his fag-end government.

UPDATE 10.50pm: Cameron says Brown "misled" the Chilcot inquiry and parliament. Political code for lying. After burying the story down bulletin on its 6pm TV News, the BBC finally led with it at 10pm.

Read More...

Brown Gets Away With Troop Murder

Fresh calls for Brown to come clean and face the music at the Chilcot whitewash over a woeful lack of troop equipment and kit is set to fall on deaf ears. Brown got away with murder the first time around.

Chilcot has played into the hands of the spinners with no chance of a recall this side of the election.

With a masterstroke of timing, Brown has managed to duck the election bogeyman of a Chilcot grilling over starving forces of funds, despite a damning inquest verdict into the deaths of soldiers in Snatch coffins which happened on his watch.

The 'unlawful killings' verdict on the deaths in 2008 came just a week too late for Brown to be held to account. An appearance this week and he would have been forced into a corner with some harsh questioning.

Instead the canny politician with a dab hand at ducking responsibility was allowed to drone on with denials, reeling off meaningless tractor stats to fudge the facts.

Insisting that no request for new kit had ever been turned down during his time as chancellor or at No 10, flies in the face of contrary evidence from practically everyone expect his band of New Labour cronies.

Chilcot witnesses, including ex-defence secretary, Hoon, have accused the treasury of 'penny-pinching' over the Iraq war. Ex-top MoD civil servant, Tebbit, told how Brown "guillotined" military spending six months after the invasion.

Even the might of The Times and Telegraph making a splash with ex-army chiefs gunning for Brown made no difference. No sooner had he left Chilcot than Brown was facing demands to reappear after his top MoD official, flatly contradicted claims to have always supported troops.

Brown, said Jeffrey, forced the military to make 'cuts' leaving them 'very stretched indeed' because he did not give them enough money.

And to top it all, Brown's appearance came as an inquest into the deaths in a Snatch was hearing how troops believed vehicles were unsuitable but were told to make do.

The coroner at an inquest into the deaths of four soldiers in a blast in Afghanistan made it clear the deaths highlighted the problems of the Snatch Land Rover.

Even back in 2008, The Times was reporting how the military blocked replacing Snatch Land Rovers with safer vehicles because no extra funding for the vehicles was provided by the treasury.

The MoD was left struggling to fund the vehicles from its overstretched budget.

The inquest heard that the soldiers' commander had requested a replacement for their Snatch Land Rover but was refused because of equipment shortages. Soldiers had not been shown how to use metal detectors in the UK because of an equipment shortage.

The coroner's verdict and damning public slating of the funding shortfalls coming just days after the prime minister insisted 'troops had all the equipment they needed'.

But Brown has been allowed to get way with murder in front of his Chilcot stooges, droning on for hours with denials and fudge. And what does he do? Skip off to Afghanistan for a sickening photo-ops and Brown PR stunt.

Hand-picked Chilcot placemen, working to a tight Downing Street remit with plenty of wiggle room. Brown getting away with murder, despite the massed weight of evidence against him. An inquiry about to enter a period of pre-election purdah so there's no chance of a Brown recall this side of the election.

All part of the disgrace of the pre-election plan to prevent the shame of underfunded troops sent to their deaths in the killing fields becoming a hot election issue.

Cameron may have something to say about this at today's PMQs, if Ducking Brown decides to turn up.

UPDATE 1.55pm: Cameron finally showed some fire in his belly rounding on Brown over the inquest verdict and his Chilcot 'evidence' at PMQs. Brown's feeble response was to shout 'Ashcroft'. Pathetic.

Read More...

Brown Wipes Blood Off Hands For Chilcot

Penny-pinching Brown comes under the starry-eyed gaze of the Iraq stitch-up as families demand to know why loved ones were sent to their deaths without proper equipment. Brown is set to snuggle up to Chilcot pals with denial written on his face and blood on his hands.

Warmongering Blair faced stage-managed Chilcot sham trials with smiles and "no regrets". No-one is taken in by Brown's grin after stitching up Chilcot with his placemen.

But families hoping the Chilcot whitewash will grill Brown are set to be disappointed. The canny politician is a dab hand at ducking responsibility, droning on with denials and reeling off meaningless tractor stats to fudge the facts.

Bunkered Brown has been forced to come out of hiding gambling he's nothing to lose this side of the election. Families expecting a last chance to hear the truth about the worst foreign policy disaster in recent times will be faced with a dodgy attempt to rewrite history.

But Brown cannot escape being a top member of Blair's war cabinet who helped push through the war. Going along with the plan to dupe parliament and people over an illegal war on the back of a pack of lies. And as chancellor he held the purse strings, holding back vital cash for equipment and kit for a war which happened on his treasury watch.

Whilst Blair was busy preparing to join pal Bush in Iraq, Brown was busy slashing the defence budget and starving the armed forces of funds.

Chilcot witnesses, including ex-defence secretary, Hoon, have accused the treasury of 'penny-pinching' over the Iraq war. Ex-top MoD civil servant, Tebbit, told how Brown "guillotined" military spending six months after the invasion.

Equipment shortages forced on the military as well as useless kit, such as the Snatch Land Rover dubbed “mobile coffins”, were a direct result of budget cuts. Troops were sent to war without enough transport helicopters, driven around in Land Rovers vulnerable to roadside bombs and suicide bomb attacks.

Time and again inquests have heard the sorry plight of troops sent to their deaths with a woeful lack of kit and equipment. This week an inquest into the deaths in a Snatch heard how troops believed vehicles were unsuitable but were told to make do.

The Times and Telegraph make a splash with ex-army chiefs gunning for Brown. Ex-defence chief, Guthrie, tells The Times a failure to properly fund the armed forces while Brown was chancellor has "undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers."

The Telegraph reveals former special forces chief, Lamb, has warned the SAS are inadequately equipped with only basic equipment due to underfunding.

Thirty-six servicemen and one servicewoman were killed while on patrol in Snatch Land Rovers. Now families of troops killed in poorly protected Land Rovers are urging the Iraq inquiry to challenge Brown on his funding.

Why did Brown jeopardise soldiers’ lives by cutting funding and forcing them to travel in the unsuitable vehicles? Why were frontline soldiers' complaints not acted on?

Hand-picked Chilcot stooges, working to a tight Downing Street remit with plenty of wiggle room, say that the purpose of the inquiry is 'not to apportion blame'. But the more deception, lies, incompetence and dishonesty is revealed, the clearer it becomes that someone must be held accountable for the tragic number of avoidable deaths.

Sickening photo-ops of Brown PR stunts with troops are hard to stomach. Families deserve better than the sham of a Chilcot whitewash and the weasel words of a penny-pinching chancellor. It was Brown who supported the illegal war with one bloody hand while slashing the defence budget with the other.

The families of the dead have a right to the truth about an illegal war fought in their name. It is the verdict of those families on Brown's performance which will be most telling.

The deaths of all soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan is as much on the conscience of Brown as it is on Blair. Both are left with blood on their hands. Voters will now decide whether to back Brown's morally criminal government which put cheap politics above the safety of the armed forces.

Read More...

Bitter Short Spits Blair Venom

Blair's booby trap, Bitter Short, has spit venom at her former boss, pouring out her heart and hatred at the Chilcot whitewash. But the ex-cabinet minister didn't have the guts to quit at the time, instead backing warmongering Blair's illegal war. Short needs a wake-up call, not another audience.

The Orange Party has little time for Short.

For all her protestations now, the New Labour minister voted for Blair's war on the back of a pack of lies, leaving 179 UK soldiers dead along with hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and an almighty mess.

Cook was a politician of principle, delivering a devastating resignation speech on the eve of war. Short blew her chance as the only other New Labour MP with an ounce of principle and dignity, by staying on.

Getting short shrift from Campbell, who told Chilcot “she was very difficult to handle”, implying she might leak like a sieve, Short was a loose cabinet cannon. Campbellspeak that she refused to be bullied and beaten into submission.

Short's 'testimony' to Chilcot had the whiff of ancient history - resurrected when the now Independent MP set out her stall for Chilcot on Marr's TV sofa on Sunday.

There’s no love lost between Short and Blair. To hear her again wade into Blair and his cronies satisfied some of the blood lust for warmongering Blair and the Mail. A refreshing counterpoint helping to ease the pain of sitting through six hours while the slippery showman lectured Chilcot.

The “preachy” PM’s evidence to Chilcot was “ludicrous,” she told Marr, repeating her view to Brown's Chilcot placemen that Blair's cabinet was "misled" into thinking the war with Iraq was legal.

Attorney general Goldsmith had been "leaned on" to change his advice before the invasion. Blair "and his mates" decided war was necessary and "everything was done on a wing and a prayer." All good stuff with the ring of truth.

Slamming Blair's account as "historically inaccurate", she added: "I believed them at the time. You don't want to disbelieve your prime minister in the run-up to war and you want to believe the leader of your party. You want to be loyal."

But Short was loyal with one hand and holding out for a plumb job as she took the Blair shilling with the other. Only to later wake up and realise it was all a "con". In stark contrast to the honourable Cook who saw through the lies and quit.

No word from Short on pal Brown, recalling only how they cuddled up "having cups of coffee with me and saying 'Tony Blair's obsessed with his legacy and he thinks he can have a quick war and then a reshuffle'."

Blair “marginalised” Brown in the build-up to the war, she told Chilcot. The then chancellor neither opposed nor supported the invasion, she told Marr.

Which leaves Bunkered Brown facing Chilcot in complete denial, denying a war even took place on his treasury watch.

But for all her faults and failing for the anti-war lobby, Short has one redeeming feature which has stuck in the throat of the Orange Party.

Once asked how she thought Blair has changed over the years, she gave a spine chilling reply: "He developed a taste for war."

Mid pictures Scarfe, Sunday Times, Private Eye

Read More...

Deceitful Charade Of Blair's Parade

The Blair circus is in town with the slippery showman set to be savaged by dead sheep at the Chilcot whitewash. A question for warmongering Blair: Why did you murder thousands with an illegal invasion?

A huge security operation is underway with taxpayers footing the £250,000 bill for Judgment Day and the disgraced ex-PM sneaking in by the back door.

But Blair is protected by his own ring of steel, with the dark forces of power and influence and the mandarin mentality of the old boys club of Brown's Chilcot placemen.

With not a lawyer among them and no 'evidence' under oath, none have the skill nor experience in forensic questioning to penetrate the slick veneer of Barrister Blair.

Two top FO international lawyers have told Chilcot the war was illegal. It was a breach of international law and therefore a crime. That's enough for the Orange Party. Why continue with the charade and allow Blair to massage his ego?

If Chilcot isn't a 'trial' then cut to the quick. Issue an arrest warrant for war crimes and let a court decide. The legal precedent is there after someone tried it on with a planned visit of an Israeli foreign minister.

A deep sense of anger and frustration has set in for the families of many of the 179 UK soldiers killed in Iraq. Chilcot is a waste of space. Thousands of vital documents remain classified. All roads lead back to Blair. His lasting legacy is a country and families shattered by an illegal war.

Slippery Blair changed his tune while cosying up to Fern Britton with a crafty pre-emptive strike at Chilcot. With brazen cheek, the master wriggler now says he would have backed the invasion even if he had known beforehand Iraq had no WMDs.

A gung-ho war to topple evil Sadam. But illegal regime change rather than hunting invisible WMDs. An arrogant PM who took the country to war on the back of a pack of lies.

Seven years and hundreds of thousands of lives lost later, the shame and scandal of the greatest moral and political disaster in recent history continues. Until today the low point was a gut-wrenching performance by Blair's shameless spin doctor-in-chief, Campbell, backing up his boss.

Now, even the former PM's weasel words will be a mere side show. Bunkered Brown is set to be dragged before Chilcot - denying that a war even took place on his treasury watch.

But Brown did not set up Chilcot to a tight remit only to indict himself, Blair or the New Labour cronies.

It's not there to "apportion blame" but to "identify the lessons that can be learned". A line so often used when a culprit is looking for an excuse to soldier on.

But after the Hutton whitewash into the mysterious death of government scientist David Kelly, who blew the whistle on sexed up WMD dossiers, it's now down to the last chance of Chilcot to hold those responsible to account.

As In The Loop's Armando Iannucci writes today, it's time for Chilcot to flex their ageing muscles: "Despite the disastrous failings of intelligence, the obvious lack of preparedness and the horrendous whiff of deceit, no one so far has apologised or got sacked. Heads did not roll; they got knighted."

Blair duped parliament and the people to launch his aggressive illegal war, motivated by displaced deference to the powerful Bush administration and a warped sense of the "right thing to do".

Passed over for his lifelong dream of the plumb EU job, Blair has been left to wander the world with his ill-gotten gains, blood on his hands, guilt on his shoulders and thousands of pounds from a City hedge fund which raked in fat profits from the banking crisis.

And this is the secret weapon New Labour hopes to use to win over the marginals in the election?

Now disgraced Blair is trying to salvage what little remains of his tarnished reputation. The deceitful charade of the Chilcot parade looks set to give him that chance.

UPDATE 6pm: Blair was heckled, booed and branded "liar and murderer" after hours lecturing Chilcot and leaving with no regrets.

Top picture: The Times

Read More...

Have You Blood On Your Hands, Mr Campbell?

Blair's shameless spin doctor-in-chief, Campbell, has become the story once again, savaged by dead sheep at the Chilcot Iraq war whitewash run by Brown's placemen. Will he put his neck on the line or finger his old pal Blair for taking the country to war on the back of a pack of lies? No chance.

Will any of Brown's cronies have the guts to ask searching, forensic questions? Campbell is bound to back up the Blair line. Playing cat 'n mouse with Chilcot will be a pushover.

Wasting no time, the arrogant old bruiser has already fingered Blair's old foe Brown as a key player in the "inner circle" of disastrous decision-making.

TV highlight of the week is the surly spinmeister's appearance at the Chilcot sheep dog trials not under oath and his hand in beefing up both the 'sexed-up' and 'dodgy' dossiers.

Second only to warmongering Blair, Campbell is the big bogeyman close to the heart of decisions to dupe the public and parliament with an illegal war.

WMDs, sexed-up and dodgy dossiers at dawn but Campbell is a dab hand at Iraq inquiries and can make mincemeat out of Chilcot.

Campbell has already wriggled his way around a commons foreign affairs select committee inquiry, the intelligence & security committee’s investigation et Al. There's no reason to believe Chilcot will be any different.

Downing Street’s ex-director of communications and strategy was made a disgraceful laughing stock with his hand in the 'sexed up' intelligence of the 2002 September dossier and Blair's forward, presented as 'beyond doubt' that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, ready for use within 45 minutes.

The disgrace of the second 'dodgy' dossier in February 2003, revealed by Channel 4 News, which plagiarised an old graduate student thesis cut and pasted from the internet to make it more scary, was used to promote the dodgy case for war.

And it was Campbell again at the centre of the outing of government WMD expert and whistle-blower Kelly, who died under mysterious circumstances after he dared to tell the truth about the WMD claim.

But the Orange Party has a feeling the outrage over Campbell's part in the hounding of Kelly before his death may be ruled outside the inquiry remit, already covered by the disgrace of the Hutton inquiry whitewash.

The exposure of Campbell’s dirty tricks began on BBC Radio 4 at 06:07 on 29th May 2003 when BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan spilled the beans to bleary eyed listeners over the 'sexed up' dossier, later pointing the finger at Campbell.

Heads rolled as war broke out between the BBC and Downing Street, ending with the death of Gilligan’s source, Kelly, who had dared to use the "C" word.

The shame and scandal continues to this day, seven years and hundreds of thousands of lives lost later.

Blair has been left to wander the world with his ill-gotten gains with blood on his hands and guilt on his shoulders. Campbell still has his feet under the Downing Street table but without the power Blair gave him to call the shots over civil servants.

The excellent Channel 4 Iraq inquiry blog has a few hard-hitting questions for Campbell, urging twitter users to ask their own. One of the Orange Party's favourites: how do you sleep at night?

As the dust settles, the old Tucker will still be In the Loop, destined to become a disgraceful footnote in a scandalous and shameful episode of New Labour history.

Read More...

Don't Mention The (illegal) War

The farce of a long-awaited 'inquiry' into warmongering Blair's illegal Iraq War has finally opened to a fanfare of fudge and a big dollop of whitewash. For months the public will have to suffer the charade of a parade with none of the powers of a full blown legal inquiry.

As one senior judge told the Guardian: "Analysing the war's legality was beyond the panel's competence. It does not include a single judge or lawyer."

The 'inquiry' is fronted by Brown's placemen working to a tight Downing Street remit. Brown was a member of Blair's war cabinet. How can this be independent of the very government which took the country to war on the back of a pack of lies? Another cover-up is on the cards.

No witnesses can be ordered to attend. No-one can be subpoenaed. No evidence will be given under oath. The 'inquiry' cannot reach a 'verdict', apportion blame or judge criminality.

Chilcot's opening statement today made that quite clear: The inquiry was "not definitive in the sense of a court verdict".

The public does want definitive answers. Why did Blair take this country to war illegally? Who else was in on the shameful act? But that legality isn't on the agenda. Unlike a full public inquiry, Chilcot has no legal standing to lay criminal blame or get to the bottom of the complex issue of the legality of the war.

Witnesses can lie through their teeth with no forensic legal mind to challenge them and no recourse to law. No final report will see the light of day until late 2010.

Chilcot, a former Whitehall mandarin and 'safe pair of hands', has been at pains to insist the 'inquiry' will not produce a 'whitewash'. Methinks the man doth protest too much.

The Orange Party remembers reeling in disbelief over the Standard's ludicrous '45 minutes' shock headline. Listening in a daze to Gilligan on Radio 4, spilling the beans on the 'sexed up' Iraq weapons dossier. Watching Blair's henchman Campbell storm into Channel 4 news live to rip the BBC and bully anyone who got in his way.

Watching the shameful spectacle of a witch hunt over government scientist David Kelly. Watching a reporter asking Blair if he had "blood on his hands" after Kelly's strange, still unexplained death.

Watching hundreds of thousands of protesters outside a duped parliament. The relentless spin of going to war to hunt down invisible WMDs rather than regime change, which would never stand up in an international court of law. Hearing Claire Short let slip Blair's "taste for war".

And ripping up life-long membership of a so-called 'Labour' Party in disgust. If New Labour can lie about war what else did it lie about?

There has already been one whitewash - the Hutton 'inquiry' into the death of Kelly. There has already been a discredited secret Butler inquiry into pre-war intelligence failures which protected Teflon Tony. Chilcot has been set up to join them with a shameful cover-up.

In the meantime an expensive farce is set to unfold as a pre-election sop to voters. The public still won't know why troops were sent to their deaths in Iraq or exactly what advice the government was given over the war's legality.

Barrister Blair will have his day, facing piles of trials with smiles. After all the fudge and faux outrage, a war weary public will be none the wiser.

Top picture: Peter Brookes, The Times. Mid pictures: Daily Mirror, Evening Standard. Bottom Picture: Private Eye.

NOTE: Two blogs giving a blow by blow account of the Chilcot Inquiry are worth following. Channel 4's Iraqinquiryblogger and the Iraq Inquiry Digest, edited by Chis Ames.

Read More...