Wednesday 6 July 2016

Shredded

Dear old Ann Clwyd.

Her maiden name was Lewis, and her married name is Roberts.

But she chooses to be known by the name of an administrative unit, as if John Prescott were to call himself John Humberside.

That administrative unit was created when she was 37, and abolished when she was 59.

But she couldn't very well have called herself Ann Flintshire, could she? It's a Kunta Kinte thing.

And who would wish to be called Ann Mold? Does even Ann Mold wish to be called Ann Mold? I very much doubt it.

Oh, and Ann Clwyd falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein was feeding people into a giant paper shredder.

That was widely repeated. Notably by Nick Cohen, who is right up there among those who must now be drummed out of public life altogether for their role in promoting the Iraq War.

Others are David Aaronovitch, Oliver Kamm, Douglas Murray, and someone called Michael Gove.

Cohen, Aaronovitch, Kamm and Murray are still journalistically active, if their activities have ever been open to such a description.

But whatever happened to Michael Gove?

9 comments:

  1. I presume you count Jon Cruddas among the list of those who ought to be "drummed out of public life altogether"

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  2. Well, your sentence applies to him.

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    Replies
    1. No, it doesn't. Or, for example, to Tom Watson.

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  3. Yes it does. He voted for that war and bears responsibility for it.

    The lies were obvious to everyone paying attention at the time.

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    Replies
    1. He long ago recanted, and anyway he wasn't part of the megaphone operation. That was the media, not Parliament. It still is. Except that one of the key media players at the time is now a candidate for Prime Minister in a few weeks' time.

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  4. I don't care-he supported it and voted for it. Every vote counts.

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    Replies
    1. The parliamentary vote was irrelevant to this. The softening up of middlebrow opinion was of central importance.

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  5. Clwyd needs absolution. If only she knew that.

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