View From The House - 27th March 2003

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

Not surprisingly, life in the House of Commons has been dominated by events in and around Iraq. Security here has been tightened and, as I write this article, noisy demonstrators march past my office window escorted by police while helicopters circle overhead. I can’t help but think that if they were demonstrating against Government policy in Baghdad, the police would be escorting them to jail and to torture and not be holding up the traffic for them so they can cross the road safely. And as I walked to the Commons this morning, with the news that British and American servicemen had already lost their lives in the Gulf, I saw that someone had thrown red paint over the museum sign for Churchill’s Second World War Cabinet Rooms.

This series of articles is called ‘View from the House’ and one of the most extraordinary views I have witnessed in the House was the performance of Tony Blair who spoke with genuine conviction to a packed Commons Chamber, Tuesday a week ago. His efforts were to persuade his own back-benchers of the cause for war. But the layout of the House of Commons Chamber results in only the opposition parties viewing his face most of the time. I was sitting, as usual, just 10 or 12 feet in front of him. His back-benchers could only look at his back. This is a shame. They would have seen the passion in his face. Tony Blair started speaking at 12.35pm and finally sat down 50 minutes later during which time he took many questions from hostile MPs - most of them ‘Old’ Labour. He failed to convince many of them. Their minds had already been made up.

The problem Tony Blair faces in the country is the ‘cry wolf syndrome’. Nobody believes him anymore. There has been so much spin over the years about the NHS, education funding, policing, and immigration, and such failure to deliver what he has promised, that when Tony Blair does speak the truth even his own MPs don’t trust him. And the production of an ‘official Government dossier ‘ lifted from students’ articles on the internet didn’t exactly help Blair’s case. It’s as if Downing Street couldn’t switch off the spin-machine even on an important matter such as this.

And yet the truth is: Iraq has had 12 years to comply with its international obligations and it was given a ‘final opportunity’ under the terms of UN resolution 1441. 17 UN resolutions passed against Iraq have been which specifically and exclusively deal with threats to international peace and stability. Article 42 allows the use of military force if necessary and Resolution 1441 was deliberately drafted to reflect the language of that article. That resolution set out a timetable of action to be undertaken by Iraq. The Government of Iraq did not comply. The Chief Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix has said in his reports to the UN this year that the Iraqi leader has not shown a commitment to the process. Tony Blair has said that there is ‘a real and present danger to Britain and its national security’ that terrorist groups will soon be in possession of biological, chemical, or radio-active weapons. We know that Saddam Hussein has the means and the will to supply such groups with weapons, if he hasn’t already done so, having already attacked his own people and Iran and Kuwait. We just can’t take that risk anymore.

Iraq is not alone. Other Middle Eastern countries are known to promote terrorism. North Korea has restarted nuclear reactors and has tested ballistic missiles. If we allow Iraq, quite literally, to get away with murder, other rogue states will be greatly encouraged. There comes a time when we must stand firm and do what we think is right.

I am writing this article some days in advance of the Mercury’s publication. I do not know how the war will have progressed by the time you read this. I hope our forces in the Gulf will return home safe and sound and that the minimum of Iraqis will be killed. We then need to determine not only how to rebuild the democratic structures in Iraq, but also to rethink our own alliances given the continual obstruction by some of our close neighbours over this and other issues.

A poignant reminder painted on the side of a United States Navy ship reminds sailors ‘why we are here’ in the Gulf. It is a chilling reminder to us all.