Thursday, April 28, 2005
Timing is everything
So it seems the Attorney General's advice had finally been leaked to the media.
The leak, coming when it has just a week before the election and the day after the Tories shifted their campaign focus from the pretty vile anti-immigrant discourse to a Blair lied one, meant my first thought was about fifth columnist Tory bastards in the civil service allied with a hostile media are seeking to destroy a Labour government (it wouldn't be the first time). The rational me would say that's unfair, but then gut reactions are not exactly rational thoughts. They are not always wrong either.
However on the subject of the Iraq war i'm pretty sure most people's minds are already made up one way or another and both sides have dug in to their position. At least from a personal perspective the legality (or otherwise) of the war was pretty low down on my list of considerations when thinking whether going to war was justified or not. That was the case in 2003 and it is still the case in 2005.
It's important not to forget either that the leak of the Attorney General's advice is not a smoking gun either. Lawyers often interpret the law and write proposition papers exploring the arguments against a policy that was to be followed. It's just exploring what the different legal opinions may be, playing Devil's Advocate.
Nice piece by Eric the Unred: A fairy tale on trust
The leak, coming when it has just a week before the election and the day after the Tories shifted their campaign focus from the pretty vile anti-immigrant discourse to a Blair lied one, meant my first thought was about fifth columnist Tory bastards in the civil service allied with a hostile media are seeking to destroy a Labour government (it wouldn't be the first time). The rational me would say that's unfair, but then gut reactions are not exactly rational thoughts. They are not always wrong either.
However on the subject of the Iraq war i'm pretty sure most people's minds are already made up one way or another and both sides have dug in to their position. At least from a personal perspective the legality (or otherwise) of the war was pretty low down on my list of considerations when thinking whether going to war was justified or not. That was the case in 2003 and it is still the case in 2005.
It's important not to forget either that the leak of the Attorney General's advice is not a smoking gun either. Lawyers often interpret the law and write proposition papers exploring the arguments against a policy that was to be followed. It's just exploring what the different legal opinions may be, playing Devil's Advocate.
Nice piece by Eric the Unred: A fairy tale on trust
