Airstrip One

Biscuit thief Blair

Tony Blair seems to have really got into the knack of annoying leftwingers as easily as he annoys Eurosceptics. It's the way he, well bends the truth. Does anyone remember when he derided the Taliban's stockpile of opium, something they had built up as a byproduct of a Western financed crackdown on poppy growing? Well, he's at it again:

Many of the people marching will say they hate Saddam. But the consequences of taking their advice is that he stays in charge of Iraq, ruling the Iraqi people. A country that in 1978, the year before he seized power, was richer than Malaysia or Portugal. A country where today, 135 out of every 1000 Iraqi children die before the age of five - 70% of these deaths are from diarrhoea and respiratory infections that are easily preventable. Where almost a third of children born in the centre and south of Iraq have chronic malnutrition.

Where 60% of the people depend on Food Aid.

Now this may have something to do with sanctions. Is Blair now saying that they were a mistake on humanitarian grounds. He then gets to this:

Where half the population of rural areas have no safe water.

Erm. And who bombed the water purification plants. OK, I understand blocking chlorine imports, but where was the tactical advantage of bombing water purification plants?

Now before I'm accused of sympathy with Saddam or his long suffering people I would strongly refute the idea that I sympathise with anyone, anywhere. I don't do sympathy - I delegate that to my elected representatives. The purpose for typing this is to show that Blair is not a world statesman but an incorrigible liar and not wholly sane. Always has been, and he won't stop now.