Former attorney general Lord Goldsmith cannot to be allowed to get away with voicing misgivings about the Iraq invasion with the cushion of seven years of hindsight under his fat arse.
To say seven years later that he felt "uncomfortable" about statements made by Tony Blair in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion is beyond pathetic. Goldsmith confirms now telling Blair what anti-war campaigners said then - namely that UN security council 1441 did not authorise the use of force against Iraq. Even then Blair accepted that a second resolution would be needed to make the war planned by George Bush - and surreptitiously backed by Blair in April 2002 - legal under international law. Blair's pledge to drag this country into an illegal war alongside the US was kept quiet at the time but was nonetheless real. He lied to the people of the UK and to Parliament and was single-minded in covering his criminal behaviour in something approaching legality.
Goldsmith's position can be summarised thus:
Initial silence about his legal advice
Continued silence as Blair misled Parliament
Blurts out truth as the posse closes in.
If Goldsmith had blown the gaff about the legal situation, he would have made it more difficult for spineless Labour backbenchers to allow themselves to be chivvied into the Yes lobby like sheep into a pen. In holding his tongue, Goldsmith failed the people of this country, assisting Blair in his bloody deception. He had a key and unique role to play and weasled out of it.
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