Blair at Chilcot: The Reactions.

It's fascinating to read how newspapers are reporting Tony Blair's appearance before the Chilcot Inquiry.

Sketchwriter Ann Treneman says he was intense early on but soon began to glow with "something close to righteousness".

Writing in the Guardian, Simon Jenkins says Mr Blair "slowly established dominance" over the inquiry panel.

"Within an hour they were listening mute to a seminar on neoconservatism for slow learners," he notes.

The Independent concludes that Mr Blair's final words appear to confirm that the removal of Saddam Hussein was always his plan.

In its editorial, the paper says Mr Blair defended himself robustly, but laments the lack of tough questions.

The Daily Telegraph reports on the protests outside the inquiry under the headline "Hanging crowd bays for blood as Blair faces his inquisitors".

Inside, the panel raised their game but Mr Blair remained "unfazed", it notes.

The Telegraph's editorial says Mr Blair was at his "most characteristically persuasive" when he talked about the potential "menace" had the war not taken place.

The Sun too touches on his contention that Iraq would have built up a nuclear arsenal had Saddam not been toppled.

Such disappointment is to be expected, as they were expecting the Chilcot Inquiry to behave as if it was a trial, which is actually the very last thing which it is.

There's something terribly English about the way in which this Inquiry is working. Everyone is invited along and given their opportunity to put their case. They are not harangued or cross examined, in any sense which one would expect in a court setting, they are simply asked to put their version of events on to the public record.

However, from the questions which were put to Blair, it was not hard to come to the conclusion that the Inquiry doesn't buy the argument put forward by Blair and Goldsmith regarding the wars legality.

The Inquiry have already revealed that there was not a single lawyer in the Foreign Office who thought the war was legal and Goldsmith is on record stating that he, himself, thought it was illegal until the Americans talked him round. It's going to be hard for them, when summing this whole thing up, not to put some emphasis on the fact that there's almost no-one in the entire British legal system who accepts the argument which Blair and Goldsmith are pushing.

And one got hints of that from the way they questioned Blair.

So those looking for blood on the floor are looking for something which this inquiry was never going to give them.

As I say, it's a terribly British affair, and the only way one will know just how well or badly Blair and Goldsmith fared will be when the Inquiry publishes it's results.

I expect at that point that we will learn, not exactly whether or not the war was illegal, but certainly that the opinion of Blair and Goldsmith was not one which was shared by the wider international legal community.

This Inquiry will not spill any blood until it issues it's summation, and even then it will slide the knife in with perfect politeness.

UPDATE:

I thought Blair's performance in front of Chilcot was best summed up by this Guardian editorial.

There is a planet, some way removed from the real one, on which Tony Blair lives. He invited the Chilcot inquiry to join him on it yesterday. On this alternative earth, certainties dissolve and falsehoods become truths. Facts are transformed into opinions and judgments turn into evidence. Success and failure are both the same. On this strange planet, the invasion of Iraq was not a disaster, but a necessary and even heroic act. Other witnesses to Chilcot have admitted error. Mr Blair simply said he would invade Iraq all over again.

[...]

The key is not that he knows one truth and tells another, but that he sees things differently to others, in the broadest and most contrasting of ways. This allows no room for subtlety, or detail, or even facts. What matters to him more than anything is decisiveness and self-belief. This was always both the brilliance and danger of his leadership.

I used to say that I thought Blair's greatest quality was his ability to convince himself that he "sincerely believed" whatever was most politically expedient for him at any given moment in time. And that is what was on display yesterday. Of course, he "sincerely believes" that what he did was right. The alternative is simply unthinkable to him.

UPDATE II:

On reflection, the other thing which I find rather startling is Blair's inability to see that, if Iran is as dangerous as he now claims that it is, his invasion of Iraq has made doing anything about it well nigh impossible.

Even if one takes him at his word, the invasion of Iraq has been disastrous, because there is simply no way any British politician could convince the public to invade Iran to deal with the threat of WMD.

Blair fails to see that this is his real legacy.

Tags: Blair, Iraq war, Chilcot Inquiry