David Posted December 22, 2009 Author Share Posted December 22, 2009 That's what I was thinking. If Salmond wants to champion a independent Scotland, then moaning about not being part of a British election debate is a bit rich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 Has anyone been following this situation with Tony Blair and the inquiry into the Iraq war?  The former Prime Minister will spend the entire day being questioned by Sir John Chilcot and the inquiry panel on what is likely to be a day of high drama at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminister.  Interest in Mr Blair's appearance has been so high that the inquiry has had to organise a ballot to allocate the 40 seats in the public gallery of the inquiry room, with a separate ballot for 20 seats set aside for relatives of those who died in the conflict.  In what promises to be the most explosive week of the inquiry so far, the former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will give evidence on January 27, when he will be asked what made him change his stance on the legality of the war.  In 2002 Lord Goldsmith had told Mr Blair military action would not be legally justified without a second UN resolution against Saddam Hussein, but by the time the conflict started in March 2003 he had declared it legal.  Mr Blair denied in a recent TV interview that he had "bullied" Lord Goldsmith into giving his blessing to the invasion.  Two former defence secretaries, Des Browne and John Hutton, will give evidence on January 25 and Margaret Beckett, the former Foreign Secretary, will be questioned on January 26.  One of the key questions which the inquiry must answer is whether Mr Blair misled parliament over the reasons for going to war before it narrowly voted in favour of military action.  Several witnesses, including the former Cabinet Secretary, Lord Turnbull, have suggested that Mr Blair was intent on regime chance in Iraq from the spring of 2002 onwards, and used Saddam's supposed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction as a smokescreen to justify military action.  Mr Blair will also be questioned intensively on why he claimed intelligence had "proved beyond doubt" that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction when some witnesses have said the facts suggested otherwise.  Jonathan Powell, who was Mr Blair's chief of staff in Downing Street, will give evidence this afternoon.  Source: The Telegraph  Also, an interesting read from The Economist;  There have already been so many inquiries into the Iraq war (including one in the Netherlands that this week judged the invasion to have been illegal), and it was all so long ago, that many people thought the latest British probe, under Sir John Chilcot, would prove pointless. In fact it has already been informative, not least because some of the soldiers, spooks and diplomats who have given evidence have grown franker since retirement. On January 12th Sir John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamite Duane Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 Anyone seen the advert for the programme where Piers Morgan interviews Gordon Brown? What a mistake, complete dumbing down of politics. First Fern Britton interviewing politicians and now that twat Piers Morgan doing it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted February 12, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2010 That's what I was thinking. If Salmond wants to champion a independent Scotland, then moaning about not being part of a British election debate is a bit rich. Â Disagree wholeheartedly. Until the SNP get to realise their ambition, they have every right to ensure fair treatment on an equal basis with other parties in the system in which they currently operate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 The fact his little girl died doesn't make him less of a failure, and deciding to "speak out" about it now, during an election campaign, is obvious and distasteful politicking. Who the hell is running PR for Labour nowadays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patiirc Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 That's what I was thinking. If Salmond wants to champion a independent Scotland, then moaning about not being part of a British election debate is a bit rich. Â Disagree wholeheartedly. Until the SNP get to realise their ambition, they have every right to ensure fair treatment on an equal basis with other parties in the system in which they currently operate. Â Â Ill stand corrected if needs be, but in Westminster, they are very much a minority party as far as Iam aware so if you brough the SNP to the table for leadership election debates you would need the leader of every represented party to be represented. Â SNP have what, 6 seats ish and got what about 1.5 % of the vote in 05.. iirc UKIP got 2.2% and have no MP's So why do the SNP with such a small number of voters/votes/MP's need representation re a Westminster debate? Â Does that means Sinn Fein, SDLP, Plaid Cymru, Ulster Unionists, Respect plus any independents would need representation... Its a bit crowded isnt it? Â Â Re the Gordon Brown thing, they just had some footage of his' interview (sic)' with Piers where he discusses his dead baby. What that has to do with Politics is beyond me.. Â 'We' seem to be adopting a US style of politicking where is all about the integrity of the Women or Man, and not what the actual policies are. Â I dont care what people get up to in their private lives, or want to know intimately about our leaders, as long as they can do their job and do it well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted February 12, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2010 Of course it's unfeasible to have all the leaders involved in the debate, and I can't see it happening any other way but for the 3 main parties. Â It's difficult to count this in number of seats though, and SNP are only organised in Scotland which is a small percentage of all the seats in the House of Commons. I think it's just SNP and Plaid making a bit of noise, which is what they have to do as minority parties really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 Of course it's unfeasible to have all the leaders involved in the debate, and I can't see it happening any other way but for the 3 main parties. And Salmond acting the way he is about it only makes him and his party look a tad foolish. Â He should be more concerned with doing his job than worrying about rubbing shoulders with the likes of Cameron and Brown at a television debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted February 12, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2010 It's all about keeping the SNP in the public eye though isn't it. Everyone knows that by rights, the SNP should be there, as in many seats, the SNP will contenders. But even Salmond knows it won't happen in his heart of hearts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 It's all about keeping the SNP in the public eye though isn't it. Everyone knows that by rights, the SNP should be there, as in many seats, the SNP will contenders. Can the electorate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland vote for the SNP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted February 12, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2010 It's all about keeping the SNP in the public eye though isn't it. Everyone knows that by rights, the SNP should be there, as in many seats, the SNP will contenders. Can the electorate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland vote for the SNP? Â No, but that's where the difficulty lies. It's unreasonable to expect the SNP to appear on the national broadcast, but yet to not appear on it will cause them a disadvantage in Scotland as it's bound to garner higher viewing figures than any additional show that includes the SNP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 Can the electorate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland vote for the SNP? No, but that's where the difficulty lies. It's unreasonable to expect the SNP to appear on the national broadcast, but yet to not appear on it will cause them a disadvantage in Scotland as it's bound to garner higher viewing figures than any additional show that includes the SNP. Aren't there national parties throughout the UK just like the SNP though? Â Surely all of them will be at a disadvantage in their own countries as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted February 12, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2010 Interesting to see how there was all the fuss about Nick Griffin being on Question Time, but no real complaint about Gerry Kelly who "was convicted of causing explosions and conspiracy to cause explosions and received two life sentences plus twenty years" after a bombing that killed one and injured 200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 Interesting to see how there was all the fuss about Nick Griffin being on Question Time, but no real complaint about Gerry Kelly who "was convicted of causing explosions and conspiracy to cause explosions and received two life sentences plus twenty years" after a bombing that killed one and injured 200. Hating Griffin is the "in thing", that's why. Â It would also seem that in the months since Griffin was on Question Time the BNP's membership hasn't "went through the roof" and they haven't suddenly gotten mainstream acceptance, as many of the knee jerkers were saying. Â They are where they'll always be. Pissing around on the fringes of the political spectrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamite Duane Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) I didn't want to start a new thread and this fits in with politics. Â The police, who we pay for via council tax, not doing their job correctly. Edited February 15, 2010 by Dynamite Duane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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