Dear All
In war time and immediately after humanitarian aid is critical to the population of a destroyed country such as Iraq.
The occupation forces in this case the US and the UK have a duty of care to ensure the population is helped in every reasonable way possible.
It therefore begs the belief that the UK development experts were told to sit in their tents and "not do anything".
While claims were being made that Britain was providing assistance to the Iraqi people, the opposite was true.
Yet again we were lied to by the Labour Government.
On top of that the UK International Development Department was described as "particularly uncooperative".
The reason, they were not sure the Iraqis "were poor enough to deserve aid".
At the time the International Development Secretary was Clare Short who was persuaded to stay in the Cabinet by Tony Blair. The carrot to buy her off was the promise that her department would play a leading role in post-war reconstruction.
Lord Boyce has told the Chilcot Inquiry that Department for International Development (DfID) experts had received instructions not to help with the reconstruction.
His evidence shows how deep the split was in the Labour Government as managed by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown with the various factions’ infighting with each other.
Boyce said;
"You had people on the ground who were excellent operators from DFID who were told to sit in a tent and not to do anything because that was the instruction they received. I actually met them."
It seems that under Clare Short, an entire government department can fight against the wishes of the rest of the government in preparation of the post war governance and assistance.
Ministers in Cabinet are bound by what is called collective responsibility this is to ensure that Government speaks with one voice.
If Clare Short had made a clean break then perhaps Iraqi people could have been helped earlier, not much comfort for them but necessary none the less.
Although the Chilcot Inquiry will not have power to act and is a whitewash, it will serve a purpose to show how fractured the current Labour Government was and still is.
Clare Short resigned the Labour whip and now sits as an independent in the House of Commons as such she can’t be forced to attend Chilcot and she is making no comment on the Boyce allegations.
In war time and immediately after humanitarian aid is critical to the population of a destroyed country such as Iraq.
The occupation forces in this case the US and the UK have a duty of care to ensure the population is helped in every reasonable way possible.
It therefore begs the belief that the UK development experts were told to sit in their tents and "not do anything".
While claims were being made that Britain was providing assistance to the Iraqi people, the opposite was true.
Yet again we were lied to by the Labour Government.
On top of that the UK International Development Department was described as "particularly uncooperative".
The reason, they were not sure the Iraqis "were poor enough to deserve aid".
At the time the International Development Secretary was Clare Short who was persuaded to stay in the Cabinet by Tony Blair. The carrot to buy her off was the promise that her department would play a leading role in post-war reconstruction.
Lord Boyce has told the Chilcot Inquiry that Department for International Development (DfID) experts had received instructions not to help with the reconstruction.
His evidence shows how deep the split was in the Labour Government as managed by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown with the various factions’ infighting with each other.
Boyce said;
"You had people on the ground who were excellent operators from DFID who were told to sit in a tent and not to do anything because that was the instruction they received. I actually met them."
It seems that under Clare Short, an entire government department can fight against the wishes of the rest of the government in preparation of the post war governance and assistance.
Ministers in Cabinet are bound by what is called collective responsibility this is to ensure that Government speaks with one voice.
If Clare Short had made a clean break then perhaps Iraqi people could have been helped earlier, not much comfort for them but necessary none the less.
Although the Chilcot Inquiry will not have power to act and is a whitewash, it will serve a purpose to show how fractured the current Labour Government was and still is.
Clare Short resigned the Labour whip and now sits as an independent in the House of Commons as such she can’t be forced to attend Chilcot and she is making no comment on the Boyce allegations.
Perhaps she should consider an invitation if it is extended as it would be helpful for the recording of history of what went wrong even though it might be very embarrassing for her personally.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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