George Galloway wins Bradford West byelection

Respect candidate takes seat from Labour with 10,140 majority, claiming ‘the most sensational victory in British political history’

Patrick Wintour, political editor | The Guardian | Friday 30 March 2012

 

George Galloway, right, is greeted by a supporter as he arrives to hear the results of the Bradford West byelection. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

George Galloway, the leading figure in Respect, has grabbed a remarkable victory in the Bradford West byelection, claiming that “By the grace of God, we have won the most sensational victory in British political history”.

It appeared that the seat’s Muslim community had decamped from Labour en masse to Galloway’s call for an immediate British troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and a fightback against the job crisis.

On a turnout of 50.78%, Labour’s shellshocked candidate Imran Hussein was crushed by a 36.59% swing from Labour to Respect that saw Galloway take the seat with a majority of 10,140.

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Tony Blair to face ‘scathing criticism’ from Chilcot inquiry into Iraq war

Tony Blair will face scathing criticism from Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry over his role in the Iraq war, according to reports.

The former prime minister will be held to account for major failings in the war in which 179 British soldiers, 3,500 US soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis died, it has been alleged.

He will be criticised for claiming it was ‘beyond doubt’ Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, the Mail on Sunday reported.

Sir John Chilcot’s findings will also criticise Mr Blair for failing to admit to a ‘secret pledge’, allegedly made with former US president George Bush, that he would go to war.

In the report, due out this autumn, Mr Blair will also come under fire for failing to plan to avoid the post-war chaos in Iraq.

Former foreign secretary Jack Straw and ex-Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell are also expected to be criticised.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/870992-tony-blair-to-face-scathing-criticism-from-chilcot-inquiry-into-iraq-war#ixzz1TllBQxxz

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Blair accused of trying to silence Murdoch critic

independent.co.uk
By Martin Hickman and Cahal Milmo
Monday, 11 July 2011

Tony Blair urged Gordon Brown to persuade the Labour MP who led the campaign to expose the phone-hacking scandal to fall silent, according to a report yesterday.

The Mail on Sunday stated that “well-placed” sources said Mr Blair had sought to encourage Mr Brown to ask his supporter Tom Watson to back off. A “friend of Mr Brown” was quoted as saying: “There is no doubt about it, Tony wanted Gordon to intervene.” Mr Watson, who claimed last week that News International had entered “the criminal underworld”, was reported to have been told that Rebekah Brooks, News International’s chief executive, “will pursue you for the rest of your life”.

Earlier this year, another Labour MP, Chris Bryant, said in a Commons speech that a senior figure allied to Mr Murdoch had warned his friends that speaking out about the scandal would not be forgotten.

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Tony Blair at British Iraq Inquiry

C-SPAN

For a second time former British Prime Minister Tony Blair testified before the Committee of Inquiry on the Iraq War. January 2010, Mr. Blair testified before the five-member group on his role during the lead up to the war, military preparedness, and his relationship with President George W. Bush.

Chilcot Inquiry: Tony Blair heckled as he expresses regret for this loss of life in the Iraq war

The Telegraph

By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent
2:31PM GMT 21 Jan 2011
Relatives of those killed in the conflict shouted out “It’s too late,” as an emotional Mr Blair told of his sorrow at the bloodshed, while two female witnesses walked out and another turned her face away.

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The Poodle’s Book Out!

Excerpted from: Tony Blair: Gordon Brown tried to blackmail me
The Daily telegraph
By Robert Winnett and Henry Samuel
Published: 6:31AM BST 01 Sep 2010

Tony Blair's book A Journey Photo: AP

The pressure on Mr Blair to step aside became so great that he admits he may have become reliant on alcohol as he faced coup attempts from Mr Brown’s supporters. He discloses that he began drinking every day and needed the “support” that alcohol provided.

He discloses his “anguish” over the Iraq war and admits that he failed to predict the “nightmare” in the aftermath of the conflict. But he insists going to war was correct and says he will devote the rest of his life to making amends.

He also discloses how American hawks, particularly Dick Cheney, the then US vice-president, were apparently keen to invade other countries in the Middle East, including Syria.

“Diana was a manipulator like me.”

George W. Bush did not recognise the prime minister of Belgium or understand why he was at a G8 meeting, Tony Blair has disclosed

The book also reveals:

• Mr Blair’s growing concerns over his relationship with alcohol. He describes how he used to drink a whisky or gin and tonic before his evening meal, then have several glasses of wine. He said he became aware it was “becoming a support”.
• He still feels “anguish” about the Iraq war and says that he had never guessed “the nightmare” that would unfold after he took the decision to commit British troops to the American-led invasion.
• He also discloses how American hawks, particularly Dick Cheney, the then US vice-president, were apparently keen to invade other countries in the Middle East, including Syria.
• George W Bush is praised for his intelligence.
• An entire chapter is devoted to the death of Princess Diana within months of his election. He says that both he and the princess were “manipulators”.

Tony Blair: Gordon Brown tried to blackmail me

Diana ‘was a manipulator like me’

Blair’s deep misgivings about Gordon Brown

Blair ‘lied to stop Northern Ireland peace talks collapsing’

George W. Bush did not recognise the prime minister of Belgium or understand why he was at a G8 meeting, Tony Blair has disclosed

Tony Blair: I did not understand Islam at time of 9/11 attacks

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/tony-blair/7974820/Tony-Blair-A-Journey-PMs-drinking-habit.html

Tony Blair ‘cannot say sorry in words’ about the Iraq war

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Blair’s “Journey” — Where it Ought to End, but Won’t!

Tony Blair will be signing copies of his forthcoming book, “My Journey”, in Waterstones (big British bookshop chain like Barnes and Noble), Piccadilly, on 8th September. Might even show up myself to kick up a stink! Blair has vowed to give the advance of £4.6 million to the Royal British Legion, an act which will result in his tax bill being cut by £2.3 million. To mark the auspicious occasion, those crazy “canooks” at Global Research Centre have published these two articles on the man.

Waterstones are pleased to announce a programme of book signings for the week of 6 – 10 September 2010.

6 September, Osama bin Laden: ‘Town Planning in Manhattan’

7 September, Radovan Karadzic: ‘Hill Walks above Sarajevo’

8 September, Tony Blair: ‘A Journey’

9 September, General Than Shwe: ‘Gated Communities in Rangoon’

10 September, President George W Bush: ‘Shock and Ore.’ ”

Blood Money.

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, Q.C., former Prime Minister, alleged potential war criminal

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, August 21, 2010

Sometimes a topic simply will not go away. These weeks, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, Q.C., former British Prime Minister, alleged potential war criminal, surreal Middle East Peace Envoy – who led an administration which shared responsibility for, if not quite rivers of blood, bloodied market places, mosques, squares, homes, humans, hospitals, beyond counting – just keeps coming back and back.

Fresh from the Balkans, after accepting a solid gold “Freedom Medal”, Kosovo’s highest Award – from a nation less than a shining example of the rule of law, where streets and the capitol’s main square are named after him,(1) he immediately re-invented himself as best selling author. His book signing is a “must attend” event, at literary emporium Waterstone’s showcase store, in London’s Piccadilly, on 8th September (2) – if you are prepared to relinquish your handbag, laptop, keys, cash, backpack, and other belongings, to a stranger, at the door.

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The Long Road to The Hague: Prosecuting Former Prime Minister Tony Blair

Part I

by Lesley Docksey
Global Research, August 23, 2010

Ex-Prime Minister and post-Downing Street millionaire Tony Blair, to celebrate the publication of his book A Journey, is holding a ‘signing’ session at Waterstones, Piccadilly on 8 September. That this man, responsible for taking us into an illegal war, playing his part in the ruination of an ancient country because he ‘believed he was right’, should advertise himself in this way has caused outrage. Time, I think, to look at where we, and Blair, actually stand in terms of what we can and cannot do to call him to account.

What hope for international law?

We have spent years constructing that body of treaties, statutes and conventions known as international law only to ignore it when it is most needed. How often has any state or rather, how many powerful Western states have been brought to account for breaching international law? And how many exempt themselves from the laws while insisting others abide by them?

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Israel and Palestinians to resume peace talks in Washington

Hillary Clinton hopes a peace agreement can be reached within a year, in first direct negotiations since 2008

Chris McGreal in Washington guardian.co.uk,
Friday 20 August 2010 16.59 BST

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians would aim to 'resolve all final status issues within one year. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Israel and the Palestinians are to resume direct peace talks next month, Hillary Clinton has announced.

The US secretary of state said she hoped a comprehensive peace agreement could be reached within a year, as she confirmed the first direct negotiations since 2008.

Talks will begin in Washington on 2 September to “relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues which we believe can be completed within one year”, Clinton said.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will fly to Washingtonfor an initial meeting hosted by Barack Obama.

The Egyptian and Jordanian leaderships have also been invited, as has Tony Blair, the envoy for the Middle East quartet – the US, UN, EU and Russia – in view of “his important work to help Palestinians build the institutions of their future state”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/20/israel-palestinians-resume-peace-talks

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Blum: US/Israel and Iran

William Blum, Foreign Policy Journal, August 5, 2010

If and when the United States and Israel bomb Iran (marking the sixth country so blessed by Barack Obama) and this sad old world has a new daily horror show to look at on their TV sets, and we then discover that Iran was not actually building nuclear weapons after all, the American mainstream media and the benighted American mind will ask: “Why didn’t they tell us that? Did they want us to bomb them?”

The same questions were asked about Iraq following the discovery that Saddam Hussein didn’t in fact have any weapons of mass destruction. However, in actuality, before the US invasion Iraqi officials had stated clearly on repeated occasions that they had no such weapons. I’m reminded of this by the recent news report about Hans Blix, former chief United Nations weapons inspector, who led a doomed hunt for WMD in Iraq. Last week he told the British inquiry into the March 2003 invasion that those who were “100 percent certain there were weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq turned out to have “less than zero percent knowledge” of where the purported hidden caches might be. He testified that he had warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a February 2003 meeting — as well as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in separate talks — that Hussein might have no weapons of mass destruction.[1]

Continues >>

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Death of Dr David Kelly: The damning new evidence that points to a cover-up by Tony Blair’s government

by Miles Goslett and Stephen Frost, Daily Mail/UK, June 26, 2010

The official story of Dr David Kelly is that he took his own life in an Oxfordshire wood by overdosing on painkillers and cutting his left wrist with a pruning knife.

He was said to be devastated after being unmasked as the source of the BBC’s claim that the Government had ‘sexed up’ the case for war in Iraq.

A subsequent official inquiry led by Lord Hutton into the circumstances leading to the death came to the unequivocal conclusion that Kelly committed suicide.

Yet suspicions of foul play still hang heavy over the death of the weapons expert whose body was found seven years ago next month in one of the most notorious episodes of Tony Blair’s premiership.

Continues >>

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You ruined my life, a ‘demented’ Brown repeatedly yelled at Blair

Row: Gordon Brown (L) is said to have screamed at then Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) during a phonecall in 2006, pictured at the party conference the same year

By James Chapman
Last updated at 2:30 PM on 25th February 2010

• Row as he demanded to know when Blair would quit
• ‘Titanically demented’ Brown also rang PM at Balmoral
• Brown denies unleashing ‘forces of hell’ on Darling
• PM likens team woes to Fabio Capello’s England

Gordon Brown repeatedly yelled at Tony Blair ‘you ruined my life’ in a final row before the former was made Prime Minister, it was claimed last night.

The then chancellor also accused Mr Blair of a ‘Trotskyist plot’ in attempting to stop him from getting into No 10, according to a book by the journalist Andrew Rawnsley.

Mr Brown’s infamous temper flared during a two-hour meeting with Mr Blair in September 2006.

He insisted that Mr Blair give him a resignation date and ensure that no other candidate stood for leader – a promise he said he could not deliver

The new revelations about the Prime Minister’s temper came after he was forced to deny unleashing the ‘forces of hell’ on Alistair Darling and again deny being a bully.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253653/Gordon-Brown-yelled-ruined-life-Tony-Blair.html#ixzz0gZmfxSN6

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