The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 7 June 2003

A speedy round-up of the week's news

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, faced an investigation by the all-party Commons foreign affairs select committee into claims that he had misled the nation about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He said this week: ‘Those people who are sitting there and saying, “It’s all going to be proved to be a big fib got out by the security services, there will be no weapons of mass destruction,” just wait and have a little patience.’ He added, ‘We are going to assemble that evidence and present it properly.’ A dossier published last September had said, ‘Intelligence indicates the Iraqi military is able to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes.’ Mr Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, said at the end of last week, ‘We were told Saddam had weapons ready for use within 45 minutes. It’s now 45 days since the war has finished and we still have not found anything.’ Miss Clare Short, the former international development secretary, said, ‘We were misled: I think we were deceived in the way it was done.’ She added, ‘The suggestion that there was a risk of chemical and biological weapons being weaponised and threatening us in a short time was spin. That didn’t come from the security services.’ The Queen celebrated the 50th anniversary of her Coronation with a service for 2,250 in Westminster Abbey and a funfair for 500 children in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Two days earlier, London enjoyed its hottest May day since 1953. Beagle 2, a craft due to land on Mars on Christmas Day, was launched from Kazakhstan with the European Space Agency’s rocket. The case against five men accused of a £5 million plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham collapsed after the court heard that the main witness was a convicted liar who had been paid £10,000 by the News of the World.

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