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Jul. 16th, 2004 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perlmongerI've held off typing this until I calmed down; I haven't, so I'm posting it anyhow.
I'm talking about John Reid's (unsuccessful) attempt to bully and batter Caroline Quinn into submission on Today this morning. I'll leave aside his politically necessary spin on New Labour's disasterous showing in yesterday's byelections; the issue was, once again, Iraq.
Quinn raised a new point found lurking in the Butler report: The Secret Services (and, by implication, the government) had acknowledged the intelligence that was spun into the infamous dossier as being flawed and useless last July. She asked him, quite reasonably IMO, why nobody mentioned this in the proceedings of the Hutton enquiry.
Reid rose to his crude and patronising best in (attempting to) batter over Quinn repeatedly that the Butler report proved that the government acted in good faith[1], asserted that the question, nay, any attempt at ascribing responsibility, was a part of the continuing witch hunt of the BBC against the government[2], eventually letting slip that he didn't actually know (or, rather, hadn't been briefed with) an answer and finished by trying to straight out lie about what Quinn had said earlier in the interview. Even this government can't quite get away with redefining history less than ten minutes after the event. Reid is a thug, and has been for as long as I've been aware of him, but he really outdid himself this time. I can only hope that his behaviour has helped focus at least a few people's awareness on the true nature of our adminstration.
As to Quinn, she did well. Refusing to be talked over, staying calm and reasonable in the face of extreme provocation, she helped Reid show himself and the government up for the arrogant, lying shits that they are. Well done, that woman, and the question you actually asked still needs answering.
[1] How anyone with exposure to Sir Humphrey Appleby could take Butler as a whitewash of government baffles me: after all, the man explicitly didn't ascribe reponsibility to the Prime Minister for what happened; that's practically tantamount, in mandarin speak, to demanding his immediate resignation.
[2] Isn't it always those guilty of an offence who are ready to see the mirror of the same reflected back at them? I think that the present government's antipathy towards the BBC has now actually exceed that of Thatcher's government. There's plenty wrong with the BBC, but I fear for all that's right with it with its future in the hands of the odious Tessa Jowell.
I'm talking about John Reid's (unsuccessful) attempt to bully and batter Caroline Quinn into submission on Today this morning. I'll leave aside his politically necessary spin on New Labour's disasterous showing in yesterday's byelections; the issue was, once again, Iraq.
Quinn raised a new point found lurking in the Butler report: The Secret Services (and, by implication, the government) had acknowledged the intelligence that was spun into the infamous dossier as being flawed and useless last July. She asked him, quite reasonably IMO, why nobody mentioned this in the proceedings of the Hutton enquiry.
Reid rose to his crude and patronising best in (attempting to) batter over Quinn repeatedly that the Butler report proved that the government acted in good faith[1], asserted that the question, nay, any attempt at ascribing responsibility, was a part of the continuing witch hunt of the BBC against the government[2], eventually letting slip that he didn't actually know (or, rather, hadn't been briefed with) an answer and finished by trying to straight out lie about what Quinn had said earlier in the interview. Even this government can't quite get away with redefining history less than ten minutes after the event. Reid is a thug, and has been for as long as I've been aware of him, but he really outdid himself this time. I can only hope that his behaviour has helped focus at least a few people's awareness on the true nature of our adminstration.
As to Quinn, she did well. Refusing to be talked over, staying calm and reasonable in the face of extreme provocation, she helped Reid show himself and the government up for the arrogant, lying shits that they are. Well done, that woman, and the question you actually asked still needs answering.
[1] How anyone with exposure to Sir Humphrey Appleby could take Butler as a whitewash of government baffles me: after all, the man explicitly didn't ascribe reponsibility to the Prime Minister for what happened; that's practically tantamount, in mandarin speak, to demanding his immediate resignation.
[2] Isn't it always those guilty of an offence who are ready to see the mirror of the same reflected back at them? I think that the present government's antipathy towards the BBC has now actually exceed that of Thatcher's government. There's plenty wrong with the BBC, but I fear for all that's right with it with its future in the hands of the odious Tessa Jowell.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-16 05:04 am (UTC)[runs]