Watching Tony Blair destroy the members of the Iraq inquiry on Friday was a national embarrassment. Not because the committee showed pathetic cowardice, or that Big Tone was devoid of contrition, but because it appeared to confirm this circus to be yet another act of collusion between our political institutions and Whitehall to kick an issue into the long grass; cynically exploiting the publics' lack of stamina for slow-moving discourse.
It strikes me this is a matter of routine. Rather than face party-political embarrassment and the consequent electoral fallout, a committee of suggestible yes-men get an office in SW1 , meander around the tough questions for as long as it takes the to exhaust the publics' attention span (about 12-18 months seems the optimum strategy) , and then when our memories have faded and emotions have mellowed, we get to hear some tepid bullshit that identifies no culprits, no systemic failings, and achieves no real closure. REPEAT.
I'm likely decades late with my epiphany, but the last 5 years in particular have been punctuated by incidents of domestic corruption that for my political generation were necessary to comprehend the strategy of governance, and just how compromised it is by career ambitions ..... Books and testimony just don't cut it, we needed to see the trend for ourselves, and now we have.
This charade is yet another reason to avoid engaging with our state, and that is exactly what we in our millions are doing; disengaging from our state, questioning the value of our own voices, and resigning ourselves to a subservient relationship with our leaders. And its not just Whitehall where this shit is happening, its at every level of state. Accountability is a dirty word these days, and those of us who in the baying crowd who utter these words are belittled as outsiders with a romanticised understanding of the political reality, citing our lack of proximity to sensitive information as a disclaimer for our 'ignorance'
I feel my options getting smaller and smaller all the time....
It strikes me this is a matter of routine. Rather than face party-political embarrassment and the consequent electoral fallout, a committee of suggestible yes-men get an office in SW1 , meander around the tough questions for as long as it takes the to exhaust the publics' attention span (about 12-18 months seems the optimum strategy) , and then when our memories have faded and emotions have mellowed, we get to hear some tepid bullshit that identifies no culprits, no systemic failings, and achieves no real closure. REPEAT.
I'm likely decades late with my epiphany, but the last 5 years in particular have been punctuated by incidents of domestic corruption that for my political generation were necessary to comprehend the strategy of governance, and just how compromised it is by career ambitions ..... Books and testimony just don't cut it, we needed to see the trend for ourselves, and now we have.
This charade is yet another reason to avoid engaging with our state, and that is exactly what we in our millions are doing; disengaging from our state, questioning the value of our own voices, and resigning ourselves to a subservient relationship with our leaders. And its not just Whitehall where this shit is happening, its at every level of state. Accountability is a dirty word these days, and those of us who in the baying crowd who utter these words are belittled as outsiders with a romanticised understanding of the political reality, citing our lack of proximity to sensitive information as a disclaimer for our 'ignorance'
I feel my options getting smaller and smaller all the time....
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