Brown faces his interrogators

strapworld

The Westminster Branch of Homebase has sold out of whitewash!

In2minds

Brown at Chilcot, I wonder if he will mention Sure Start?

Richard

Saved by Iraq, at least Tory HQ can relax for a few hours as the spotlight falls on the PM.
Remembering of course The tories did support the war and are tarnished by association.
Only one party stood up and dared to follow its priciples and that is the Liberals.
Looking forward to the Sunday papers review of the week.

Chuck Unsworth

Well he's had more than enough time to rehearse his responses and his ad libs. Let's see if he can articulate them without too much stammering and bluster.

Not that they'll bear any resemblence to reality, of course.

Andy

I'll bet he's cacking himself at the prospect of being savaged by those pin sharp interrogators.

Irene

Well for once this week Labour cannot control the media!

Gawain

Given the vast quantities of ink spilt and newsprint wasted on the Ashcroft farrago (dead nil) today will be a test of the values of our media. Chilcot is a waste of time as it was designed to be, but, the issue, Brown/Labour's failure to fund their wars (dead 200+ British soldiers in Afghanistan alone before you start counting innocent civilians) is surely worth more newsprint. My fear is that as the issue is no longer entertaining and the media have surrendered once again to Labour's spin devils that Brown will blunder through again.

Nick

Imagine if Cameron/Osborne had been in power for the last few years and were up in front of Chilcot answering questions about underfunding the military.

Mandelson and his little helpers would be all over the BBC saying how disgraceful and unpatriotic this was and how Cameron and Osborne should be tried for treason.

However Brown is in the dock and we hear barely a bleat from anyone.

Vulture

The Tories should plaster the country with posters showing a legless soldier in a wheelchair with the simple slogan:
BROWN BROKE BRITAIN. BROWN KEPT HIM SHORT OF KIT.

Brutal. But effective. And true.

GoodbyeGordon

As Ben Brogan pointed out: "Gordon Brown has a complicated relationship with the truth". This lack of 'frankness'when combined with pusillanimous questioning will reveal nothing to the British public. Our time, money and confidence have been comprehensively wasted when a few pounds worth of whitewash would have done the job equally as well. A dishonest, arrogant and cowardly man who has contributed to the deaths of many brave men and women will walk free just like his grinning counterpart. It is we the British people however, who should hang our heads in shame for allowing this coterie of spiteful gangsters to lead us into a war and then fail to equip our servicemen to fight it. And it looks as if we will re-elect him in May - we will get everything we deserve because this is OUR FAULT.

Swiss Bob

We all know how it'll go. Brown will get an easy ride, especially as the polls are narrowing; no doubt a few words have been dropped in the right ears.

If on the off chance they ask him a hard question then he will just lie or not answer the question.

Same old rubbish.

emil

They're more likely to ask him about Ashcroft than anything truly challenging.

Mike Brighton

...or mention Labour investment vs. Tory cuts?

Michael Booth

well it's hardly going to be Judgement at Nuremburg, is it?

marc antony

In all this there is only relevant word and that word will remain unspoken as the fat controller attempts to prove what a wise statesman he is.
What's sick is how cheaply Brown saw and now sees the conflict as nothing other than a means to his own self-advancement. He probably wanted a real disaster to screw Blair, and he got what he wanted.
That magic word is, of course...
OIL!

ollie

Brown will bludgeon his way through proceedings with his customary grace and deftness.

He won't think twice about lying - and even worse, he will not be held to account for those lies.

When was the last time a Labour policy or announcement was scrutinised by the media?

Wight Tory

And the lies that will no doubt be said,
will be concluded after the election.
The sham, the sop and the innocent dead,
"blood on their hands" to gain reselection.
Today people should dismiss what the media is fed,
and vow to return Parliament back to convention.
The project is over no more need be said,
Let the people be heard and remove the henchmen.

JONNY

Richard if you're going to join the grown-ups here, and get taken seriously, it would be a good idea if you learnt how to spell.
Your present piece is festooned with howlers.
Vulture in your Wackford Squeers role - please note. Cane at the ready.

strapworld

Well said Richard. Ignore the daily abuse from one idiot.

I have been listening to the Chilcott Enquiry on Radio 5L. I am sure former colleagues of mine in the police and security services. The excellent solicitors and counsel I have enjoyed being 'interrogated' by and listening to their forensic questioning of witnesses, must be laughing out loudly at the inept manner of questioning. Brown has given them at least six opportunities (especially at the early stage on giving the armed services all they require!) for them to get in with some real questions of substance.

The British people, the families of the fallen and indeed honesty in public life are all being treated with contempt.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

If it really gets too tough for Comrade Brown, does he have a cyanide capsule concealed in one of his teeth?

Paddy

I can see why Tony Blair and rest of cabinet kept Brown out of loop.

This is hilarious!

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Michael Booth: Even if he sings like a canary, hardly Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg either.

Paddy

He's giving them all a history lesson.

Paddy

He hasn't mentioned Ashcroft yet!

Richard

@Vulture,

Shame on you!
What kind of person would think that your suggestion is in anyway anything other than a blatant exploitation of our war heros.
What next dead babies with the heading Ashcrofts taxes could have saved her/him your idea is sick.

Richard

@Strapworld,
Thanks for your kind words.
The raking of the entrails is nothing more than naval gazing unless something good comes out of this.
I hope the public will realise its never right to go to war unless it is in self defence or at the specific request to support a friend in peril.
We are not the worlds policemen and we have only one role to play and that is as a moral compass. I do however think we will never get there in my lifetime.

JONNY

'What next dead babies with the heading Ashcrofts taxes could have saved her/him your idea is sick'

I'd say this was rubbish.
Only a strapworld would disagree

Michael Booth

Although Anna, one could say Brown has engineered our very own Gotterdammerung...

Frank P

"Interrogators?"

Don't you mean interlocutors?

Vulture

Richard-head:

Are you seriously suggesting that the refusal of your master Bruin to supply
vital equipment to our troops has NOT cost the lives and limbs of soldiers?

Former Chiefs of Staff Charles Guthrie and Richard Dannatt - who unlike you are in a position to know - do not appear to agree with you.

Our soldiers' blood is on Bruin's paws.

It is you in Liebour who should hang your heads in utter shame. But then you have no shame. You are a disgusting shower.

Ivy Eileen

@ Irene,

re:"Well for once this week Labour cannot control the media!" - don't believe it. The BBC's 8.00 a.m. news was reporting Brown "will say", Brown "will reject allegations" and Brown will this, that and the next thing. And how do they know all this ?

Marcher Baron

Does anybody SERIOUSLY think that Brown will actually ANSWER any questions? He can't change the habit of a lifetime, surely? Mind you, we could run a book on how many times he mentions it was the "right thing to do", how lessons were/will be learned and how he was getting on with the job.

Frank P

"The raking of the entrails is nothing more than naval [sic] gazing unless something good comes out of this."

I see no ships, Richard. Or perhaps, even more appropriately, I see no shit? Any fluff?

A few contortions in that metaphor, also, one imagines.

Richard

@Vulture,
As the money man Mr Brown could only give these men the money what they chose to spend it on was up to them.
If they had the money and troops did not have the equipment what does that tell you about these men. The MOD have never known how to handle money- they are reckless and spendthrift by nature.
if the MOD had not tried to hide the failings of their purchasing systems the Chinoock helicopters that had software faults and sat in hangers for 15 years would have been available and the money wasted on their recomendations. Instead they chose to play design and development which is not their role. People died because they did not get it right and they tried to blame the pilots to hide their failings....so dont hold these men up as heros to me.

Richard

@ FrankP
You are too kind.
Now Let give you some advise.
Attacking a dyslexic for spelling mistakes is like humiliating a cripple for not being able to play football.
Your a big man hope your kids look up to you NOT

Paddy

Before polling day isn't it about time the younger generation were informed about the dirty dealings of Lord Mandelson?