Corbyn Coup to Protect Blair?

Alex Salmond [former Scottish First Minister] has appeared to suggest the internal Labour party coup against Jeremy Corbyn is connected with the publication of the long-awaited Chilcot report into the Iraq war.

[...]

“I had a conversation on exactly this point with veteran Labour firebrand Dennis Skinner. He answered in one word ‘Iraq’. The Skinner line is that the coup was timed to avoid Corbyn calling for Blair’s head next Wednesday from the despatch box. Indeed many would say that when Corbyn stated that he would be prepared to see a former Labour Prime Minister tried for war crimes then he sealed his fate as leader of the Labour party.”

[...]

“[Blair] seemed puzzled as to why Jeremy Corbyn thinks he is a war criminal, why people don't like him,” he added. “The reason is 179 British war dead, 150,000 immediate dead from the Iraq conflict, the Middle East in flames, the world faced with an existential crisis on terrorism - these are just some of the reasons perhaps he should understand why people don't hold him in the highest regard.”

“We are waiting to see Chilcot producing the evidence, which we believe is there, which will allow action to be taken.”

“One way or another there are many MPs, and this is not a party political thing, this is across the political parties, who are absolutely determined that account has to be held to,” he continued.

“[They believe] that you cannot have a situation where this country blunders into an illegal war with the appalling consequences and at the end of the day there isn't a reckoning. There has to be a judicial or political reckoning for that.”

  UK Independent

I, for one, will be well and truly surprised if there is any reckoning at all.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Americans Should Follow the UK Example. But We Won't.

More than a fifth - 22 percent - of Britons polled by YouGov this month said they believed Blair should be tried as a war criminal for his role in the conflict, which was preceded by massive anti-war demonstrations in London and other cities.

Fifty-three percent said the invasion was wrong, while half said Blair, a key international ally of US President George W Bush, had deliberately misled the British people over the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.

Blair's schedule these days is a closely guarded secret to avoid ambushes by the protesters who stalk his public appearances armed with eggs, shoes and banners reading: "BLIAR". Even his testimony at last year's phone-hacking inquiry was interrupted by an intruder shouting, "This man is a war criminal!"

  alJazeera

I wish I could say, “It couldn't happen to a more deserving person.”

Blair may start thinking about taking up residence on whatever property he may own in South America. There are a number of people over here who don't lose a moment's sleep over it (although they do have property in South America), including Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld....

It was only as David Cronin saw Tony Blair and his entourage striding towards him that he finally plucked up the courage to go through with his plan to attempt to arrest the former British prime minister over his role in the invasion of Iraq and claim a bounty on his head.

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Cronin [...] is one of four people to have claimed a reward from an online campaign, Arrest Blair which offers a share of a bounty pot for each attempted arrest.

[...]

Cronin, who donated his $4,200 bounty to a Gaza-based charity, said he was moved to act not just by Iraq but also in protest at Blair's appointment as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of the UN, the US, the EU and Russia.

"It's a complete joke that a guy who had helped to start two wars in the wider Middle East region is now swanning around posing as a peace envoy," Cronin said.

Yes, it is. We live in a joke world. And the joke's on us.

Moves to hold Blair accountable are also gaining momentum in Scotland, where some campaigners believe he could be tried under the country's separate legal system.

Margo MacDonald, an independent member of the Scottish parliament, told Al Jazeera that she planned to table a motion on Wednesday calling for Scottish law to be amended to make illegal "the waging of aggressive war with the intention of regime change", specifically so that Blair could be brought to trial.

"Theoretically, we believe he could face a court in Scotland," MacDonald told Al Jazeera. "We are simply adding to the pressure."

In an article published in last weekend's Sunday Herald newspaper, Alex Salmond, the leader of the ruling Scottish National Party, appeared to lend weight to MacDonald's cause, writing: "The illegal invasion and war in Iraq is a disgrace without parallel in modern times, the shame of which will echo down the ages for Blair and all of those who were complicit in sending young men and women to risk their lives on the basis of a gigantic fraud."

Good luck.