Proof positive that Brown listens, sometimes at any rate. The Prime Minister will give evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry before the election. Chilcot has been resolute in his wish to keep politics out of the probe, which suggests that No.10 may have put in a call following the mounting clamour for Brown to appear. Brown is something of master in expressing defiance with a single line: “I have nothing to hide,” he averred on Wednesday.
Might this sudden decision prove to be, as Sir Humphrey might have said, courageous? As Daniel Korski noted two weeks back:
What indeed? Judging from what we’ve heard so far, Brown is either particularly mean spirited or a closet disciple of Lady Ottoline Morrell. Geoff Hoon’s evidence was remarkable in its candour about Brown’s Treasury refusing to fund the war sufficiently, a decision that still has life in the wilderness of Afghanistan. If there is one thing that Motorway Man hates more than war, it is the sense that Our Boys have been short-changed. The Chilcot Inquiry may yet come to life.‘Brown’s role in the Iraq War, not that of Blair, that is the most obscure part of Britain’s modern history. As chancellor, Brown was the second most powerful man in government. He held the purse strings. If he had opposed the Iraq War, it is hard to see Tony Blair succeeding in persuading Cabinet, the Parliamentary Labour party or the House of Commons. So what did Brown think about the war?’
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