SIMON EMMETT . net

The chickens are certainly coming home to roost in Downing Street this morning. After a lot of political posturing by Gordon Brown, and delaying of the formation Iraq inquiry, it was great to hear that he would have to face the Chilcott inquiry before the General Election.

From the evidence heard this week from former Defence Secretary Hoon, and former Foreign Secretary Straw, it would have been unthinkable to delay calling Gordon Brown to give evidence. Sir John Chilcott had said that he didn’t want it to become party political, but if he had delayed calling Gordon Brown until after the General Election it would have been seen as being just what he had hoped to avoid. So calling the PM now is not only logical, but as also right.

Gordon Brown will have some very tough questions to answer. Just what did he know, and when? Did he hold back funds for our troops? The second of these questions will have bigger ramifications. If he did hold back funds for body armour and other vital equipment, as the government were obviously planning for a war, then he will have OUR troops blood on his hands.

We all know that the intelligence presented to MPs was (at best) wrong, and that the decision to go to war was based on that intelligence. But if he did cut the defence budget, leaving our troops poorly equipped, then it will be him who is responsible.
It will be very interesting to see what his explantion will be.

I fully expect him to try and give a non-answer to every question, like he does at PMQ’s, it’s whether Sir John let’s him get away with it.