Jack Straw

Jack Straw MP

I have always believed that the nadir of British Politics in the past thirty years were the Blair days. Tony Blair and his 'kitchen cabinet', in my opinion, corrupted parliament. They bypassed the constituency MP and then misled parliament.  Subsequent events have illustrated that the 'Blair Years' were the years that ruined the country and led to the problems that we have today. He alone introduced the European Human Rights Act and quietly he was beavering away to ensure that the European Union and Common Purpose would be entrenched before most of us were aware of the problem.

In the midst of the 'Blair Years' one or two men were constant. Chief of these were Jack Straw and John Prescott. I would almost guarantee that these two have never batted for Britain in their lives. Jack Straw knew that his existence as an MP depended on the Muslim vote in Blackburn.


So I am ecstatic that one of the leaders of the rebel forces in Libya, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, is suing Jack Straw, a former Foreign Secretary, for having him abducted and tortured. At that time nobody could have possibly thought that Colonel Ghaddafi would be deposed and disposed. I hope that it means that good old Jack has to appear in court on oath. If he does then will he not have to implicate the then PM Tony Blair because if Jack was doing the good Colonel a favour surely good old Tony would also be complicit?


Many of us believe that one day justice will catch up with these people. It is extraordinary that their demise should emanate from their rabid attempt to court a tyrant. It should have come from us the people but we would always have been stitched up. I just wonder who will be appointed to judge the case? I bet the search is on for someone who can be persuaded to be non neutral!


I suspect that the trial of Jack Straw will be very illuminating!

The British Army

The findings of an enquiry into the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers makes very uncomfortable reading for every ex soldier. There cannot be anyone who has served in the forces who has not met bullying NCOs and weak officers. When wars happen people get hurt.

Nobody is chasing the Iraqis who set fire to the British soldiers who had to bail out of their armoured vehicles in Basra. Nobody has ever charged the murderers of the six Military policemen who were caught out by a mob very early on in Iraq. I cannot excuse anyone who was party to the type of aggression that we have seen on the TV but war is war and bad things happen.

We cannot have the army under the same kind of pressure that we have placed the police under. They must be allowed to react without fear of subsequent prosecution. In Northern Ireland some of the constraints that we were under in the seventies were ridiculous.

What concerns me more are the actions of our politicians. This Iraqi was killed in 2003. Since then we have had a plethora of Foreign Secretaries who have stood up in Parliament and denied/excused/lied that these events happened. More and more it appears that the NoLab politicians under Blair/Brown did not have a clue what was going on.

I just wonder if one day Messrs Blair and Brown will face a judge because they really deserve the opportunity to explain to the public how they managed so much damage in such a few years and why they did it? 

Rendition Flights and our Lying Politicians

Now I must make one thing clear when I Blog about this issue. If I thought that a prisoner had information which would save innocent lives then I have no compulsion that I would make every attempt to get him to spill the beans. Similarly if young 'British'males are found opposing our troops in a war zone then they should be regarded as the enemy and disposed of. War is war it is very unpleasant and lots of people get hurt but war is for keeps so if you don't want to suffer then keep away.

When the issue of these so called rendition flights landing on British territory was first aired my immediate thought was 'so what'. We are fighting side by side with the Americans so if they want our assistance then they can have it as far as I am concerned.

I only started to sit up and take notice when Jack Straw the then Foreign Secretary stood up in the Commons and denied that we had anything to do with it. Now I wouldn't trust Jack Straw to walk my dog across the road so I knew that there had to be a link. Nine days later (22 Dec 2005) Tony Blair said ' I have absolutely no evidence to suggest that anything illegal has been happening here at all...I don't know anything about it." That clinched it for me; we were definitely involved and we just had to wait for the truth to come out.

Now David Milliband (surely the least convincing Foreign Secretary ever in our history) has admitted that they both lied and it was indeed going on. Are we surprised? Tony Blair is long gone but Jack Straw is now the Justice Minister (Ha!). Surely he should be called to explain how he didn't know what was going on when he was Foreign Secretary? Well of course he should but don't hold your breath. You know what this lot are like.