henry79's Blog

Iraq: A structural flaw or a supine Cabinet?

Peter Hennessy gave a really good interview of 18 Doughty Street last week in which he described in a relaxed way what he thought about many topics- ranging from the Falklands War to nuclear armament under Attlee. Its well worth listening to and is here.

Amongst the things he said though was his argument that during the Iraq war the Labour Cabinet behaved irresponsibly. None of the members of the cabinet asked for the legal advice to be given to them, it was the Permanent Secretary at the MOD and commander of the army who asked for it and none of them asked for written argument about the war even though the Cabinet Office had actually prepared such a statement for them to read.