The UK Iraq war Inquiry report under the direction of Sir John Chilcot has been published. It strongly criticizes the British Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, for having rushed the decision to go to war on the basis of faulty intelligence. It also concludes that Mr.Blair gave premature support to President George W. Bush before he had legal permission to go to war from Parliament or the United Nations.In retrospect then Canadian Prime minister Jean Chretien’s decision not to commit to Canadian participation looks like a much better decision when compared to the error in judgement made by Blair for Britain. There may be some civil law suits undertaken by the families of soldiers killed or wounded in the war as a consequence of the Chilcot report.Without a doubt the reputation for good judgement and political leadership of Mr.Blair has suffered a major blow. To his credit Jeremy Corbyn, the embattled Labour party leader who had voted against participation rose in Parliament to remind the public and the House that there were also millions of Britons at the time who had been opposed and over a million people had marched in London in opposition to the war in advance of it.
On the tory leadership front Stephen Crabb has dropped out throwing his support to Theresa May. So now it is a choice between Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom for the second spot. The odds favour Leadsom but surprises can happen particularly if some May supporters throw their final ballot votes to Gove in order to shut Leadsom out of the final.
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About haroldchorneyeconomist
I am Professor of political economy at Concordia university in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I received my B.A.Hons (econ.&poli sci) from the University of Manitoba. I also completed my M.A. degree in economics there. Went on to spend two years at the London School of Economics as a Ph.D. student in economics and then completed my Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Toronto. Was named a John W.Dafoe fellow, a CMHC fellow and a Canada Council fellow. I also was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1968 after completing my first class honours undergraduate degree. Worked as an economist in the area of education, labour economics and as the senior economist with the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation for the Government of Manitoba from 1972 to 1978. I also have worked as an economic consultant for MDT socio-economic consultants and have been consulted on urban planning, health policy, linguistic duality and public sector finance questions by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan,the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Ontario and the Federal government of Canada. I have also been consulted by senior leaders of the British Labour party, MPs from the Progressive Conservative party, the Liberal party and the New Democrats on economic policy questions. Members of the Government of France under the Presidency of Francois Mitterand discussed my work on public sector deficits. I have also run for elected office at the municipal level. I first began to write about quantitative easing as a useful policy option during the early 1980s.
haroldchorneyeconomist 