£0.5 Million To Protect Blair At Iraq Inquiry

LONDON, JULY 24 (KUNA) -- Police ran up a bill of nearly 500,000 pounds to protect former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at his two appearances before the Iraq Inquiry, new figures reveal Sunday.
Hundreds of officers were stationed inside and outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster when the former prime minister gave evidence about his controversial decision to go to war.
Scotland Yard spent 273,000 pounds policing his first appearance in January 2010 and another 214,000 pounds when he returned a year later, making a total cost of 487,000 pounds. The policing bill for the two sessions included 365,000 pounds in "opportunity costs", money the Metropolitan Police would have spent anyway meeting the wages of officers usually assigned to other duties.
The remaining 122,000 pounds went on overtime and other additional costs, such as transport, air support, catering, barriers and other equipment.
The Met said 657 police officer shifts and 28 police staff shifts were worked when Blair testified to the Chilcot Inquiry into the 2003-2009 Iraq War for the first time on January 29 2010. Hundreds of noisy anti-war protesters gathered outside the conference centre that day to express their continuing anger at his decision to take Britain into what they regard as an illegal conflict.
The former prime minister's second appearance before the inquiry on January 21 this year required 662 police officer shifts and 37 police staff shifts, but only a small number of activists turned out.
Blair was heckled at both evidence sessions by those watching him in the hearing room, including families of British troops killed in Iraq.
When he insisted at the end of the first hearing that he had no regrets about removing Saddam Hussein, one member of the audience shouted.
"What, no regrets? Come on." Opponents of the Iraq War strongly criticised the high cost of policing Blair's appearances before the inquiry.
Lindsey German, convenor of the Stop The War Coalition, said "Tony Blair took us into wars that cost billions. When his warmongering was the subject of an inquiry the police spent half a million protecting him from protesters.
"The money would have been better spent putting him on trial, or indeed investigating the phone hacking of people who opposed the war." Kate Hudson, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, added "It is unbelievable that such sums were spent to shield Tony Blair from the peaceful - if vocal - protest of ordinary citizens.
"This is yet another cost which should be added to Blair's tally of wasted billions stemming from his unjust and illegal decision to take the country to war."