Tony Blair’s second appearance before a British government Iraq war inquiry committee is being followed closely by the UK but also the US, as the former British prime minister saying he told US President George Bush “you can count on us” before the war began. British media and politicians are particularly interested in the contents of a message from Blair to Bush in July 2002, which the government has ordered kept secret. US interest is focusing on Blair’s insistence on fighting Islamic extremism.
Links to other sites: BBC, CNN, New York Times, Telegraph
The story of what really went on in UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government is now out, with the former leader’s memoirs published Wednesday 1 September. According to the BBC, the big news is that he found Gordon Brown hard to work with, calling his successor as PM “maddening” if brilliant. The Telegraph agrees and quotes Blair as saying Brown had “zero emotional intelligence” while the Guardian brings out the only pre-publication interview with Blair on the book, where he urges Labour not to move to the left.
[Video] David Cameron, Britain’s new prime minister, apologized to Northern Ireland Tuesday 15 June for the deaths of 14 unarmed civilians in Londonderry, called Derry in Ireland, in 1972. His apology accompanied the long-awaited publication of the 5,000 Saville Report on the shootings. “What happened should never, ever have happened,” he said during a speech watched by a crowd assembled at Guildhall Square, where the unauthorized civil rights march was headed when British soldiers opened fire. Cameron said the report shows clearly that the military made mistakes and that those shot, including 13 who were injured in addition to the dead, were unarmed Catholics who in no way posed a threat to the soldiers. The march aimed to give Catholics more rights in the British province, but after the shootings it drove many of the more moderate Catholics into the secessionist camp.
The report, ordered in 1998 by then Prime Minister Tony Blair, was the costliest in British history, according to Reuters, at a cost of £200 million, with evidence taken from 2,500 people over a six year period. It reverses a 1972 report, now widely considered to have been a coverup, where soldiers said those shot were carrying arms.
Bloody Sunday was a turning point in Northern Ireland, with a hardening of the lines between Catholics and Protestants, and the IRA (Irish Republican Army) getting more support from a wider base. It became the bloodiest year in the long conflict’s recent years, with 500 deaths.
Links to other sites: BBC, Belfast Telegraph, Irish Times, Telegraph, UK, Reuters
Video, Telegraph, UK
© 2010 APP
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Set up to monitor states’ pledges to help Africa, the Africa Progress Panel’s future is “under review”, according to a spokesperson quoted in the UK’s Telegraph. The Panel was called into existence in 2007 by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, “as a vehicle to maintain a focus on the commitments to Africa made by the international community in the wake of the Gleneagles G8 Summit and of the Commission for Africa Report in 2007.”
Despite very high-profile members including former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former IMF Director General Michel Camdessus, rocker Bob Geldoff and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, critics claim that the panel has punched below its weight, and Blair has not even bothered to attend its last four meetings.
Members will hold a meeting 3 February to decide its future role. Its mandate expires in 2010.
Links to other sites: Africa Progress Panel, Daily Telegraph
Ed. note: Patrick Chappatte’s cartoons from 2009, many of which appeared on GenevaLunch, will be exhibited at the Société de Lecture in Geneva 2 February to 28 March, with the opening at 18:00 Tuesday 2 March. Details
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair made a long-awaited appearance Friday morning 29 January in front of a war panel reviewing how and why the country entered a war with Iraq. A key factor, he has told the panel, was the changed perception of risk after the attacks of 11 September 2001. Blair is appearing in an all-day session until 17:00 UK time; the panel can be seen live on BBC.
The only contender
Update 2 – video on Rio’s plans 19:23 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games in a vote that saw Chicago eliminated in the first round, and Tokyo in the second round of voting.
Copenhagen was the only contender for the pre-Olympics fun and games
Which of four cities would win the right to host the Olympic Games in 2016 kept the crowds guessing before a meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Copenhagen Friday 2 October. Following a precedent set by then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair who went to Singapore four years ago to pitch London’s bid for the 2012 Games, the heads of state or government of each of the countries whose cities are bidding for the Games in 2016 are in Copenhagen to make the case on their behalf.
Copenhageners lapped up the publicity. US President Obama took time off from reforming the country’s health care system and saving the world from Iranian nuclear bombs to help his wife Michelle sell their hometown, Chicago.
