Al Meghrahi Release - Smoke and Mirrors

This affair helps to reopen the Iraq debate, in a way that vindicates Blair's most severe critics. Tony Blair's remaining defenders say he was motivated in Iraq by a hatred of terrorism and tyranny and had no regard whatsoever for getting access to oil. Yet at the very same time the New£abour government was plotting in Libya to hand the worst terrorist in British history to a tyrant in exchange for oil. It's proof that oil and corporate power were a much bigger factor in driving foreign policy than the public rhetoric of opposing tyranny or terror.

David Cameron refuses to open an investigation. He says he will release all the relevant documents – but the Cabinet Office has quietly declared that Blair's permission will be needed before any records are shown to the public. For the families of all the innocent people slaughtered in Lockerbie, this has been a cold-water education in what their governments really value. Helen Cohen, remembering her murdered 20 year-old daughter Theodora, says: "Western governments seem to be run by one thing now – the great God money."

There's a revealing postscript to this story. Last month, Blair went to Libya on behalf of the many mega-corporations who now employ him. He was greeted by Gaddaffi himself – who tortures dissidents and terrorises his population – "like a brother", according to the Libyan press. There has even been speculation that, now they need a CEO, Tony Blair will go to work for BP. In so many ways, it seems, he always has.

This is What We Are All Up Against

Robert Fisk called the Arms Fairs and promotions 'War Porn'. He was right and here it is in all its obscenity. Complete with price lists.

Did You Kill Blair Peach?

I remember seeing many people throughout the 80's wearing t-shirts with the emblazon 'Who Killed Blair Peach? Did You Kill Blair?' The murder in East London in 1979 of the teacher and peace activist has just been confirmed to be the work of the Metropolitan Police. The contemporary reports, released under the 30-year rule, have established that the police evidence of the time was falsified. The culprits have moved on but are still alive. Scotland Yard have said there will be no charges. Why not? Witnesses might be hard to trace but the report, and the background paperwork, date from 1979. This smacks of the ‘let’s move on and forget it’ brigade of New Labour and their London establishment-based cronies. ‘It was all a long time ago’ was never recognised before now to be a defence against murder (and, interestingly, war crimes) in Britain.The killers could be charged within a week.

Grubby Non-Dom Entrepreneur? Step Forward Tony Blair.

From Craig Murray today.

The newspapers today carry the unsurprising news that Blair's business affairs are routed through a multiplicity of companies operating in tax havens. He is raking in over £5 million per year, aside from his official job of chief Zionist - sorry, I mean Middle East Peace Envoy.

But I was more struck by the information in Michael White's Blair puff piece that, before his arrival in the Sedgefield constituency yesterday, six policemen blocked off the roads around the venue with trafic cones.

Why? I am not making a petty or petulant point, I mean it. Why? This was a Labour Party event, not a government event. Blair holds no executive office in this country. The election has not been called. Even if it had been, he is not a candidate. Why do the police cone off the roads for a Blair New Labour speech?

How much did the six policemen cost? And they were just the bottom of the pile, the road coning bobbies. Blair arrived in a huge entourage of cars, at least some of which were taxpayer provided. There was a large police car and motorcycle escort. Not to mention the close protection officers. How much did all that cost?

Thatcher and Major move around with no blues and twos and a single close protection officer when required. The Duke of Edinburgh moves around privately with much less security than Blair. As a taxpayer I object fundamentally to footing the bill for protecting this war criminal. He should get a single close protection officer and fund anything else himself. He can certainly afford it.