Defending A War Criminal Against A Liar

Michael Meacher says that he was the only member of the 1997 Shadow Cabinet to be denied a Cabinet post after that year's General Election. That is true. But he also says that this was because he was the only member, other than John Prescott and Margaret Beckett themselves, to have supported a Leadership candidate other than Tony Blair when John Smith died. That is a lie. Clare Short may have been one of those, like Private Eye and others, who cheered on the neocon-Wahabbi war machine in Yugoslavia only to turn against it in Iraq. But credit where credit is due: she supported Margaret Beckett for Leader.