Friday, April 13, 2007

Tony Blair responds to petition!

Or rather he doesn't, the team that manage the petition website recycled what he said on TV on Wednesday. You can read the response online here. But I will quote and Fisk it below:
Look, I didn't actually know about the decision until after it was taken but really that is not the point.
Well, the person taking it can't have known about it until he took it can he? The question is did you know they were thinking about it?
The Navy were trying to deal with a wholly exceptional situation in which the families were being pursued by the media to sell their stories and the Navy took the view that it was better to manage the situation rather than let it happen.
I see. So the media trying to buy the story was a shock was it? The fact is that they had several days notice of the problem, because the media were trying to buy the story before the hostages were released. They could have taken advice on the matter from people like Max Clifford who would have told them that if you sell an exclusive to one paper then all the papers who put in a bid but did not get it would set about trashing the reputation of the person selling the story. It has happened before and will happen again. In short the situation has not been managed at all.
Now with hindsight was that a good idea? No, precisely because people would then misrepresent that as somehow the Navy encouraging people to sell their stories, which they weren't doing at all.
Well, Arthur Batchelor feels that he was encouraged to believe just that, and though everyone else was doing the same. Otherwise he would not have sold his story.
Do I believe it will happen again? No.
Good, but it is a bit late now though isn't it? The damage has already been done.
But were people acting completely in good faith and honourably so far as the Navy was concerned? Yes, they were.
So what? They made a blunder of catastrophic proportions, and have lost the respect of the armed forces. It does not matter how well meaning they decision was it was very bad, and heads should roll!
Now I think we've had days of this now and really it's time to move on.
You wish! The media and the public will decide when it is time to move on, not you.

You can read more on the hostage crisis here.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent post, BW.

Gosh, you mean no media outlets tried to buy stories from the returnees of the first Gulf War? Or those people returning from active service in Iraq over the past three years?

Just this one incident?

Seems a bit odd, Tony, even by your own lying attempts at a cover-up.

Blair - and I have absolutely no doubt that it was he, because no one in this government makes a decision except this little slimeball - was hoping to discredit the British armed forces. Why? Well, it's all part of destroying everything Britain has been proud of for hundreds of years. He's a Trot. Always has been. As is that uppity, vicious manatee he's married to.

Benedict White said...

many thanks Verity, can i assume you are not Cherie Blairs biggest fan?

Anonymous said...

I think I have commented on this before. The media are no longer prepared to buy New Labour spin, The media sense a scalp. May 3rd is looming large, and New Labour are going to get a serious kicking. My favourite bottle of Margaux awaits the celebration.
If the SNP win in Scotland, Brooon is castated politically speaking as well. Happy days await... and soon

Anonymous said...

"He has no intention of engaging in a witchhunt against people who acted honourably and in good faith in very difficult circumstances."

What a shame that the same rules did not apply to Dr David Kelly (RIP).

Anonymous said...

Anonymous - good point about Dr David Kelly (R.I.P.)

"... people who acted honourably and in good faith in very difficult circumstances.")

And that would be who, exactly? This is a genuine question. Are we referring to the sailors and marines who surrendered without much protest to President Imadingbat?

And who swaggered around in party mode, trying out little phrases in Farsi and nibbling nuts and? And who actually took their goody bags on the plane with them? OK, dumping them at Teheran airport might have been a little too hazardous, but why not ostentatiously drop them in the bins when they got to Heathrow? Or even leave them on the plane, and then the Navy and Marines invite the press on board to film all this "goody" garbage been left strewn around the plane - rejected.

Well, it's a terrible thing to say, but it is easy to understand why the Americans spontaneously applaud their military at airports, and we don't. How very, very let down our real military men and women must feel by this repellent betrayal.

BTW, can you imagine anyone, under any circumstances, applauding Tony Blair for anything? Those gals at the WI eight or 10 years ago got it right.

Tony Blair is repellent.

Anonymous said...

Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves......

Oh bollocks, sorry silly me....

Rule Britannia, Britannia waives the rules....

Thats more like it!

Anonymous said...

I hear Broon met Bush today. What do two men both lacking in any of charisma say to each other? Both (if Broom becomes PM) have about the same amount of time before they're out on their respective ears.

Anonymous said...

"Now look I have said all I am going to say on this subject. We need to move on. After all, Fay Turney is the Peoples Sailor for it is she who has introduced the new Naval Salute which as you know is two hands raised in the air at right angles to the deck."

Anonymous said...

Speaking at the IMF in Washington, Mr Brown said: "I know from my recent visits to Afghanistan and Iraq how highly Des Browne is regarded.

Well my son was in Afghanistan when Brown and Des turned up.....

"What a mincing prick. All he did was smile when the cameras were on and then scowl when they had finished clicking. Swiss Des as he is widely known (for his uncanny resemblance to Swiss Tony) is "regarded" alright. He is regarded as a twat."

Anonymous said...

Didn't Des Browne have a wee bit of trouble a few months back, didn't he have to apologise for misleading the HoC's?
If correct, then he already has form for being economical with the truth!

Anonymous said...

maggie thatcher fan - You are too insular and angry for your comments to be regarded thoughtfully.

You hate the United States. You hate George Bush. That tells me you know nothing about him (except what Al Gore has put about, of course, with his one-man contribution to "global warming" with his angry stream of hot air about George Bush).

Mr Bush has degrees from both Harvard and Yale. Getting in to either one is not a breeze, even if your Daddy's a graduate and has loads of money. Mr Bush got into both. He graduated from both.

After almost 300 years, all the Ivy Leagues get way, way, way over- capacity applicants from people whose fathers and grandfathers are alumni and have money. They still take exceptionally intelligent people, and they still offer grants to see through those who cannot pay their own way.

President Bush has charisma coming out his ears. That is why the 30m electorate of Texas gave him a shoo-in for both his terms in office as governor. Governors - a lot of Brits seem to think this means something like a chief assistant to the President - are the chief executive officers of their states. End of story. There is no one above them. The President can't order them around, except in Federal matters.

A huge state like Texas, with half the population of an entire tiny country like Britain, voted George Bush their chief executive twice.

Gordon Brown is not only charisma-free, but is charisma-negative, in that people try to hold the rising gorge when they meet him. Do not have the effrontery to compare this slimy piece of angry insecurity with the confidence and humour of George Bush.

There's a good lad.

Brown has earned his sense of inferiority over an entire lifetime of chippiness.

Benedict White said...

Verity, re you comment on Maggie Thatcher Fan, I do not know where you are from, but in the UK Bush goes down like a bucket of cold sick.

He may well be intelligent. He certainly appeals to his own audience, which is what he ought to do, but finding big fans in this country is not easy.

Some interesting comments on here.

Firstly I do think Labour are going to take a serious kicking in May.

Interesting comments on how popular Des Browne is in Afghanistan. That said politicians tend to get to talk to people who say what they think they want to hear. Fair enough, but not useful.

There is also the interesting comparison with Dr David Kelly. (May he rest in peace). Now that was a witch hunt and helped along by the MOD.

Benedict White said...

ChrisD, do you have any links or more details?

Anonymous said...

BW - Why shake the hand of an ally of whom you are sick with jealousy and a feeling of lost glory, when you can align yourself with the left? I mean, Britain knows BEST! That's why they lost the War of Independence! Ooops!

But how sickening that you lost to the Americans, who were such crude emigrants. Some of them had taken the decision to leave their homes and their heritage to go to a country they had never seen and only heard about. But they faced the sun in the West and they underwent incredible hardship to get to American shores. There, most of them, with unrelenting hard work, prospered.

The same today. You just can't stand it that the Americans are a million times more powerful than you. It's just not FAIR! Britain knows best and is more sophisticated and experienced! We've got Des Browne and Margaret Beckett on the world scene!

What a bunch of losers, and you well deserve to lose. Do you really think that, other than courtesy to the major Anglophone ally, Bush gives a crap about whether we support him? Do you have the faintest idea of the power of the US?

And you're throwing all this goodwill away by writing so-and-so "certainly deserves a thrashing" at the next ballot - as though it would make any difference.

Blair's removed all your rights. He has ceded everything to the Europe we have fought to stay out of for 2,000 years. And the hordes - yes, hordes - of Third World non-contributors, many diseased with AIDS and tuberculosis - who flock to our small islands that we have protected for 2,000 years.

They have rights to the money your earn. Health care (I can only thank God it's so bad that most of them will die anyway), free housing, free electricity, free gas, free phone service, free food, free fuel for the car they've stolen and will abandon the first time it gets a parking ticket.

And you write: "Firstly I do think Labour are going to take a serious kicking in May."

Really? With all the postal votes and all? Blair is in charge. He is the dictator of Britain. He can do anything he likes. Haven't you grasped that?

Anonymous said...

Benedict,

Congratulations - you've arrived as a Blog when Verity posts on it!

However, when "she" refers to "her" country, you have to look at whether the context is England, the UK, the US, Mexico or Isreal - all of which serve her purposes as "home" from time to time.

Interesting that whilst she was lauding Bush's academic depths (!), she chose not to major on his track record in business - or his role in fighting in Vietnam. Kind of pertinent when he is the CEO of the world's biggest economy, fighting a trillion dollar war...

Benedict White said...

Verity, I think you miss the point about the comments on Bush. He is no where near as appealing to a British audience as many of his predecessors, like Clinton, Bush Senior, Regan, (OK, he probably is more appealing than Carter) JFK, Eiesenhower, FDR etc.

It does not mean I think we should rely on the French as some sort of strategic ally!

That said, and I though I had also made this clear, he does not need to appeal to us, he needs to appeal to his own audience and he seems to have done that twice.

Marquee Mark, Yes I had kind of spotted that! I do wonder where exactly Verity calls home, because it can make people easier to understand.

Anonymous said...

Marquee Mark - well, you certainly are an imaginative fellow. I've never been to Israel in my life and would have no reason to go, not being Jewish. (I defend the right of Israel to exist, though, and I defended Israel against accusations that the war in Lebanon, started Hezbollah, was by some weird contrivance, Israel's fault.) I don't know what hat Marqee Mark pulled Israel from! How hysterical!

I am British and will be voting in the next election. For the first time in my life, I will not be voting Conservative. This is due to the presence as leader of trendy lefty, Dave. I am a fan of the United States and George Bush and I'm not going to rehearse all the arguments one more time. You all known them.

Jimmy Carter and Clinton were the two weakest, most indecisive men ever to occupy the Oval Office. Control-freak Jimmy Carter could be decisive when he was assigning parking spaces at the White House or working out a rota for use of the White House swimming pool, but he never could quite get his head around Iran. Clinton was another disgrace to the White House.