TONY BLAIR THE COMPLETE NARCISSIST

There is a widely held view, prominent within the British media that Labour backbench rebellion against the Iraq war in 2004 was predominantly based on our rejection at the time of the “dodgy dossier.” Parliament gives voice to this red herring through the over concentration in the chamber on the past and future roles of weapons inspectors and the need for greater clarity on shared intelligence on chemical and nuclear weapons.

Yet for me, at the time one of many anti-war Labour MP’s, weapons of mass destruction were always less concerning than the weapons of mass distraction employed by Bush and Blair to try to excuse their warmongering and their ulterior motives.

At the time, I was also a member of the Labour friends of the Middle East and our own discussions over what was occurring were always far more expansive, and our concerns far more plural.

Those concerns, as they always had been were about the continued fragility of the Middle East states, and the concern that constant interference by the West in the affairs of these states could only lead to further unrest.

These States themselves of course were created on borders drawn up and imposed by “outsiders” undermining local self-determination and preventing any internal Arab solution being found.

So let us now be clear on the real cause of the current bloodletting in Iraq and Syria, let us place the blame squarely where it should rest. The blood indelibly stains the hands of both Tony Blair and George Bush Jr.

I personally recall in 2004 being interviewed under caution by Special Branch officers after a transcript of a meeting between President and Prime Minister came into my possession via my political assistant. The document you may recall was given back to number 10 as its disclosure at that time, in my view, would have placed British Troops engaged in the “theatre of war” in danger.

The two spooks interviewing me were keen to ask questions on my view of President Bush, mostly because I had already admitted discussing the document with colleagues from the Democrat Party in the States. I told them that in my view President Bush was the most dangerous man on the planet and that despite his own well documented claims,  the true axis of evil existed far closer to his home than he had suggested and were in fact resident within the Whitehouse. The two officers were aghast, how could a member of the UK Parliament hold such “extremist” views? Well perhaps if they are reading this today they will understand far better the basis for my concerns.

As Isis (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) continues its offence against ill prepared Iraqi troops to build a Sunni based Islamic State which recognises no borders, the true cost of the West’s illegal occupation of Iraq becomes ever more apparent. Do we never learn? I thought by now that world history would have helped us prevent such mistakes not simply continue to repeat them. It really is very, very simple; any military occupation of any country will simply act as a recruitment agent for the forces rallied against you and any puppet regime placed in power by any evacuating army will always fall over simply by being labelled from the start as contaminated goods.

Tony Blair of course thinks differently, in a recent 3000 word essay he dismisses the claims of those of us who believe his war on terror simply made a bad situation a critical one, he says about the current crisis in Iraq that “We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that we have caused this” and there he goes again trying to “liberate” notions this time instead of nations! Which I guess is an improvement but it doesn't hold true.  Despite the loss of well over 1m troops, insurgents and civilians in Iraq and of course also in Afghanistan since Bush and Blair’s wars began, my former Party Leader still wants us to hold on to the premise that without his involvement it could all have been worse! Open civil war, the use of chemical weapons by all sides, rape used as a war weapon, hundreds of thousands of children dead and dying through hunger and disease, neighbours killing neighbours, ancient cities flattened, villages wiped out and the numbers of fundamental extremists increased tenfold and he suggests it could have been worse! It just doesn't ring true.

What is true of course is that the enforced borders and invented nation states such as those of Iraq established by the British Empire in 1921 and Syria, a 1922 creation of French/British making which also formed the lands of Lebanon and British controlled Palestine, are going to be continuously challenged and fought over by local tribes and faith based militants. 

This will continue until such a time that the Middle East is shaped in a form acceptable to those living in the

Middle East rather than that only acceptable to Western governments still intent on manipulating their own imposed regimes for their own ends.

It is also worth remembering when trying to work out what has gone wrong in Syria, before 1945 that the French Mandate created different States in Aleppo, Damascus, Alexandretta, Apatite, Greater Lebanon and Jabal Al Druze, and that borders in Mesopotamia were also redrawn ignoring the views of those in Kurdistan who were to be denied autonomy for decades to come. And yet now we try to preach to the dispossessed the language of unity!

The answer to the current crisis in the Middle East is not to be found looking down the barrel of guns either in the hands of Western Soldiers or those sold or gifted to Al Qaeda by Western Governments, it is to be found internally through negotiation (enforced if necessary with Arab peace keeping forces on the ground) and through the continued involvement of the Arab League Council. My current belief, uncomfortable as it may seem both to the West and to those of us who seek co-existence and secular nations is that the days of Iraq as a nation state could now be numbered and that will inevitably leave us with separate Sunni, Shia and Kurdish States.

At the moment the need to stop the bloodshed is of course far greater than any desire for perfect multifaceted Muslim nations, but if there is a hope of fixing Iraq’s damaged democracy and creating an Iraq and a Syria where Kurds, Shia and Sunni Muslims and Christians can live in peace together then the UK and the USA need to learn its lessons of the past and in future keep our distance.

SUMMER SIZZLERS

The act of doing, stops you doing all the other things you want to be doing instead of the things you need to be doing, so I end up carrying around all these blog ideas in my head and have no time to put them to paper. So excuse me if I unload them all here in shorthand:


INDIAN PICKLE

So Local Borough Council Leader Cllr David Mackintosh has been freeloading it in India courtesy of the Council Tax payer accompanying Local Gov Minister Eric Pickles on a Trade delegation where apparently he also carried the torch for SEMLEP or NEP?

He's behind you! stand up straight David and try not to look swivel eyed

Well I will resist the temptation of rubbishing all such trips as if well planned and focused then they can reap rewards. I remember visiting China with the SESAME network whilst in Parliament to secure a £1m+ telecommunications trade deal for Northamptonshire in the late 1990's albeit I still paid my own air fares and expenses.

But the timing of the trip during what are ever more challenging economic circumstances does warrant some questioning after all who was it who made the following insightful pronouncement back in 2003

"At a time when pensioners are scrimping and saving to pay their council tax it is outrageous that councillors are going on foreign freebies. They should show some solidarity with taxpayers and pay towards these trips."


So did the Mack pay his way? or was it an Indian Pickle take away? answers on a poppadom please....



BLOOD ON HIS HANDS

Foreign Secretary William Hague was quick to deflect any blame for the recent murderous atrocity which took place on the streets of Woolwich away from Britain's Foreign Policy and of course there will always be some truth to the suggestion that evil men are evil men whatever their self acclaimed cause.

But Britain's continued military involvement in Iraq, and in Aghanistan and our complete denial of Israeli crimes in Palestine do support the Al Quida recruiters and make it far easier for those who want to preach hate to do so.

Hague in my mind has always been a fool, ever since his schoolboy address to Tory Party Conference during Thatcher's early years, but even I was shocked by this mans recent ridiculous decision with David Camerons blessing to support the arming of Jihadists and Al Quida elements within the Syrian rebel forces.

The photograph of  Michael Adebelajo standing in a London Street holding a machete with blood stained hands was sickening to look at, equally though photographs published on the internet of a jihadi rebel in Syria chopping up and indeed eating a Syrian army soldier it seemed were not gruesome enough to dissuade Hague from pushing ahead with his policy to send arms to such warped individuals 

And why we are so intent in shepherding in to Syria a regime ruled by Islamic extremists and Al Quida factions it is beyond me? and it seems has also bought condemnation from even from many of his own Tory MP's! 

The UK government has attempted in recent days to differentiate between “extremist” rebels in Syria linked to the Al-Qaeda group Jabhat al Nusra and the so-called “moderate” Free Syrian Army militants. The kind of “moderate” freedom fighters who as pointed out above like to cut out the hearts of their slain enemy and devour them live on camera whilst proclaiming verbally to do so in Allahs name!  

Hagues baffoon like actions and Britain's continued meddling in the affairs of the Middle East with little thought to the fallout will continue to make things substantially worse both at home and abroad

THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER

Regular readers of my blog will have laughed along with me at the ever more Labour Friendly optimistic comments from a regular reader who hides under the pseudonym "Castle Ward Mafia"

One of my favourite comments from him/her from recent posts was the quote:

"From the people I know in the party locally things are going well"

This of course was just before Cllr Ifty Choudary crossed the floor to the Tory's and Cllr Beverley Mennell left to join UKIP

Even I am surprised at how long Labours woes have continued to pile up since I left the Party 6 years ago and so I thought I would make it clear for all, that the latest troubles have nothing to do with me!

I in fact now get fed up of people saying "since you left" or  proclaim "you should come back"

The reason I left 6 years ago was that the party was corrupt right to it's regional Core, a local party full of fixers and an unhealthy majority of wannabees who will do and say anything to get either themselves elected into office and power or bitch and complain to the regional Office about other Party members who they see as their rivals.

Meanwhile Ed Milliband statement yesterday on Benefit caps and any Labour Government sticking to current Government spending rules effectively pronounced a new three party coalition at Westminster, why wait for an election? why not now all merge into one big capitalist friendly party of national government in the interests of the uber rich?

Political Compass: based on 2010 manifesto's

I said recently how happy I am now in the Green Party, its still true, I have comrades again, I go to meetings where we discuss how we can all work collectively to achieve the ambitions we jointly hold. We laugh, we debate issues in a respectful and educational manner, and we are a party where even those at the very top have not forgotten the importance of those in local party groups.

I don't know where the Local Labour Party is going next, (probably not very far until Sally Keeble leaves the scene) but I just want to make it clear that frankly my dears I don't give a damn.

Last week the Green Party's Leader Natalie Bennett phoned me at home and we had a helpful discussion over local party matters, the elections, what support the national party can give us in here in Northampton and we discussed other matters of a personal nature more of which I will announce to you as soon as I am able. But for now for me and my new found green friends:

"Things can only get better"

DEMOCRACY RECYCLED

Northampton Borough Council's fall from grace, its place in Local Governance as a friend to Northampton has been on the wain for some time, and democracy within the organisation has been eroded year on year since the turn of the century.

But even I was surprised this week to see how low its value in local democracy has fallen.

I attended Spring Boroughs Residents Association last Tuesday to say goodbye, I am no longer their elected County Cllr and wanted to leave the stage clear for my successor, no moans, no regrets, the electorate (or at least 19% of them) had spoken. At Borough and County level the area now has Labour Cllrs to speak up for them. Or at least they would do if the Cllrs continued to have a role to play!

Joe Joyce the excellent Residents Association Chair updated us on the story of the two  "Vanishing
Recycling Nodes" on the estate which seemed to disappear overnight leaving local residents with nowhere to drop off their recycled materials.

Over 80% of local residents do not have cars and the recycling nodes were very popular, so popular that when I was the Borough Cllr I had to lobby the Council to secure a twice weekly collection as the nodes were constantly overflowing.

PEOPLE WERE RECYCLING THEIR WASTE!

THE NUMBER OF REFUSE SACKS COLLECTED PLUMMETED.

THE COST OF LANDFILL TAX TO COUNCIL WAS REDUCED.

So who took them away? and why? Well Joe got no answers from his three Labour Borough Cllrs on the estate, they knew even less, Cllr Winston Strachan it seemed at least asked the question but got no answer! only a vague promise that someone from Enterprise rather than the Council would phone him and they didn't

NBC recycling your vote for you

But Joe persevered, and come up trumps, by mistake it was leaked to him in an email that the decision to remove and not replace them had been taken by the "Spring Boroughs Multi Agency Group"

Now excuse me for being a tad Anglo Saxon with my language, but who the f*ck are the 'Spring Borough's Multi Agency Group" when they are at home?

It seems that this group of self selected unelected officers from a number of Authorities including the Borough Council, the County Council and the Police are now taking all decisions on local services themselves, without troubling the elected, nor consulting with the electorate.

So why bother with elections at all now? Democracy is dead, OFFICIAL rubber stamped by the Local Multi Agency Group, no doubt coming to a street near you too soon if not already in situ.

You may wish to write to your local Councillor, but then again why bother? they have no power? they take no decisions? They are not even told what is going on on their patch, and when they ask questions they are ignored!

Likewise in Ethel Street we have a children's play area which has now been locked for over 6 months, where the Councillors it seems have no say or input as to why it was closed and when it will reopen?
Perhaps I should contact my local Multi Agency Group for some answers? If only I knew who they were

Meanwhile all Cllrs Borough and County can now officially stand down from duty 80% of your electorate couldn't be bothered to vote, less than 10% voted for you and the Council you were elected to doesn't need you any more, other than as window dressing and as a scapegoat and defensive wall between the public and those who are really making the decisions!

SHORT SHORTS

Thought I would just catch up on a few stories for purpose of updating Joe Public on all matters local national and international.

EALING COMEDY

Regular readers will be aware of the ongoing teething problems with Northampton Borough Councils's (and DDC's) 14 year contract with Enterprise Services to provide Refuse Collection, Grass Cutting and Street Sweeping Services across Northampton and Daventry. Well the so called "teething problems" are still causing much pain to all concerned and are quickly turning into a a very nasty and prolonged toothache.

With Enterprise now it is suggested losing somewhere between £40,000 and £60,000 a week on the contract they have cut back even further on their workforce numbers, leading to more collections being missed, more grass left uncut and even less streets swept. The problems which we were told initially by the administration at NBC were little more than hiccups have now led to the Council having to look at fining the contractor £250,000 in penalties for not delivering on the service contract.

My contacts at Westbridge tell me it can only get worse in the coming months but meanwhile Northampton's woes with Enterprise as a contractor have now reached the ears of other elected members on Tory controlled Ealing Council  in West London, who are very keen not to fall into the same trap as the Borough having just engaged Enterprise, 4 months ago on a similar 15 year contract!   Enterprise took over the service from previous contractor May Gurney on April 1 2012, after it was awarded the £300 million 15-year collection contract in July 2011


Under the deal Enterprise was meant to operate a kerbside sort system for the collection of dry recyclables and food waste but following familiar  ‘teething problems’ it had to move to a commingled system to work through the backlog of missed collections. All sounding very familiar?

It now seems that after 4 months of missed collections and what letsrecycle.com called a "Fiasco in Ealing" Cllr Bassam Mahfouz, portfolio holder for transport and environment is under pressure from the opposition to resign his post over the services failures. But in an attempt to keep the attack dogs at bay Cllr Mahfouz has come up with a cunning plan, he is sending a crack squad down to see us all here in Northampton as he explains " “What we don’t want is to be a year down the line and then fining them. We are getting the guys to go down to those councils to learn what they did right and wrong.”

I could save Cllr Mahfouz and Ealing Council some money on funding the journey as its very clear what they did wrong, they signed a contract full of holes, put up as a lost leader, at a price no one could ever deliver the service for, they (as in all three political parties) then ignored the two independent members on the Council who warned them that this was bound to happen and banked the savings regardless of the consequences.

What a farce indeed,

ALL SIT DOWN FOR TEAM GB

As the row continues unabashed as to those unused seats at most events for this years London Olympics I was reminded of a conversation some weeks ago on Radio Four when the station was previewing our Gold Medal chances ahead of the Games, and what it all boiled down to was that "Sitting" was what we British do best, not just in watching the varied sporting extravaganzas, but also it seems in competing.

And so it is after an edgy start to the games and a continued wait for team GB's first gold that we must now look to those sat on their back sides to deliver the goods for Blighty. So bring on the brave rowers and the canoeists from Britain's finest public schools. All hail the horsey equestrian set with their jolly jodhpurs and jaunty japes. Cry out loud for the British Cyclists and their two wheeled velodrome heroics.

Britains Gold medal chances it seems rest solely on Britains backsides, on Boats, Bikes and Horses. So how about letting us working class folk also get in on the act? After all it is our games. I suggest the London Olympic Committee therefore immediately introduce more sitting down sports for us to compete in in this years games, we will soon rise up the medal table then.

How about Downhill Soapbox racing? I loved that as a kid, and who's for a go at a Spacehopper marathon! how delightful it would be to see all those large orange or even flag printed spherical objects bouncing up and down along the Mall in unison.

Perhaps even our Lib Dem friends could get involved with qualifiers for Olympic style Fence sitting?

SYRIA LEFT TO SUFFER AS THE WORLD LOOKS THE OTHER WAY

This blog has a very good history of predicting events local, national and even international, but for once I was hoping that I had judged it all wrong when I said that an all out civil war in Syria was probably inevitable http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/why-syrias-tears-are-wasted-on-west.html but as predicted HM Government it seems values the lives of Syrian Civilians far less than they did Libyan Civilians, there have been no cries this time for military intervention, no NATO proposed safe corridor, no NO FLY ZONE.

So what has Libya got that Syria hasn't ? Sympathy? Willpower? Oil? I explained the best I could in my last blog that the rebel army (or armies) in Syria are a diverse, complicated and split force who will probably not be able to wrestle power from the regime no matter how much they believe in their cause, and as a result the blood letting will continue unchecked. Meanwhile William Hague pops up on our screens every few days to tell us how awful it all is and how wicked Bashir Hassad is whilst saying nothing about who may replace him in any successful uprising, and also doing nothing to protect the civilian's caught up in this horrific bloody struggle for Syria's future.

The country's uprising has been played out constantly on the internet website YouTube, but while the brutal images of death remain the same, images of the armed opposition groups as also predicted are ever changing. Some groups now openly say they are affiliated with al-Qaeda, fly its flags, and say they now have training camps inside the country. Phil Rees, filmmaker and author of 'Dining with Terrorists', told Al Jazeera that for Al Qaeda, Syria is "an attractive place to come now." Who is Al Qaeda? Someone coming from Libya who helped overthrow [Muammar] Gaddafi? During Libya, they were considered to be freedom fighters and the British government supported them. Now they travel to Syria where they feel a jihad going on,"

I am sure that if the charge against the British Government of double standards being applied to different countries and different peoples has not already been made clear, then their current silence and inaction on Syria can only make it ever more translucent.

WHY SYRIAS TEARS ARE WASTED ON THE WEST

The daily heart wrenching images coming out from Syria tear at the very soul of humanity, how can human life and the lives of children be so cheaply discarded, extinguished and violated? Who is to blame?, How can we bring those responsible to justice? and what can we do to stop the bloodshed? These are probably the three most voiced questions asked by those of us taking time out of our busy lives to even care. But we cannot rely on the British Government or even the BBC to provide us with the answers as in their eyes its all far too simple. It's all the fault of the Syrian Government and its head of state Bashar Assad, that's all you need to know, that's the foreign office line and our job as subjects of our own head of state is to believe them. But look again, dare to search for the truth, expose yourself to the horror and you will find a far more complex tale than that told in our newspapers and on our TV screens.

Syria is of course the birth place of the Baathe Party, it's breakaway sect in the early 1960's going on to raise Saddam Hussein into power in Iraq. The group then was split into Marxist (Civilian) and Militarist wings. The Military power which held say in Syria exists as the main power to this very day and its current President Bashar Assad the son of Party founder Hafez Assad rules in name only. I met Bashir in Syria in 2002 and found the most unassuming leader I had ever had the fortune of meeting. He certainly wasn't raised for the role, that honour was reserved for his brother Bassell, whose coronation never arrived due to his playboy tendencies which led to his death in a high speed car crash in 1994. And so it was that a young Bashar, an ophthalmic surgeon at St Marys teaching Hospital in London suddenly became next in line to the top job back in Damascus. Bashar and his British born wife to be Amas Ahkras found their lives completely reordered.

The Military might of Syria however was not about to lose its grip on power and despite many attempts at modernisation by the new president they continued to run Syria with an iron fist rather than take advantage of the new presidents ability to change Syria for the good. And so when the Arab spring finally made its way on the road to Damascus it met with stiff resistance from within the regime. Whether or not the determined reformer I first met fresh in office had long since given up trying to control his military chiefs I do not know, but he seems to be powerless and at times caught like a rabbit in the headlights when challenged on the alleged crimes of his state.

And then to make things even more complicated and far more dangerous the military themselves are losing grip on their own regional regiments as long held tribal differences come to the fore. The recent atrocities of course at first attributed to the Syrian Government were it seems actually carried out by a militia group loyal to the Baathe party called the "Shabia" others blame the FSA (Free Syrian Army) for similar atrocities carried out in villages loyal to the regime. In other words despite the wish of the BBC and the British government to explain away these atrocities as a simple government v the people struggle those on the ground talk of sectarian unrest and almost open civil war between opposing terrorist groups and government supporting militia in the North, and this violence is now spreading across the border into Lebanon.

But despite who is leading who and who is really calling the shots one thing is for sure and that is that the Baath Party of Bashar Assad and his father, Hafiz Assad, are still in absolute control of Syria, and any wish from the west that they are to be toppled as quickly as over regimes in the region is ill advised

This conflict will go on for a long time. There are a lot of supporters of the Baath Party regime. Not just members of the Shiite Alawite community and the Christians and the Druze, but others too, particularly among the Syrian bourgeoisie, the middle classes who support the regime. It will also be bloody. So what happened to the UK governments resolve as expressed over Libya to protect civilians on the ground? Where is the cry for military intervention? Or is Britain's resolve limited to our economic interest and the size of the government army we face?


Or perhaps the advisers in the foreign office are reminding British ministers of what happened in Algeria in the 1990's when the rise of Islamist groups was kept in check by a pro government alliance of tribal groups. In Algerian both sides, the military and the Islamist's, militias, started massacring very large numbers of civilians in terrible ways. The obvious fear is that the same kind of thing could happen in Syria now because we know very little about the rebel forces and the rebel militias that are now emerging across the country.

Robert Fisk, for me the most gifted, open and learned journalist in the Middle East recently told reporters that

"Well it already is happening in Syria. I went to a suburb of Algiers called Bentalha where there was an Islamist attack on villagers who were themselves "Islamist's". Hundreds of people were killed, including babies who had their throats cut.

I was in the village where this happened and saw the corpses of these babies and I saw the parents. And from the roof of their home, I saw the Algerian flag flying from the nearest Algerian Army barracks. From which, apparently, the Algerian Army could not come to the rescue of the villagers.

Of course they could, but they didn't. This is the sort of situation we're now seeing in places like Houla and Hama and I suppose perhaps, horribly speaking, in Aleppo too. We're seeing the same sort of pattern emerge, unfortunately."

The simple fact though is that the Syrian opposition, the armed opposition to Bashar Assad is so divided that it cannot be regarded as a serious threat to the regime. And Britain and the West have no idea who is leading that opposition on a day to day basis

And if we don't know who the opposition is, then the lazy thing to do is to simply blame Bashar Assad and the Syrian Government. But the West in this case cannot be seen to even give support to the opposition, as they undoubtedly contain elements and fighters from Al Qaeda, whose members may indeed perhaps be involved in massacres similar to the Houla massacre aimed at different tribal groups. And of course even if we had a side to back then the UK's economic interest is limited in this case so don't hold your breathe waiting for UK military involvement

Syria, and it's people need a new start, but it will not get that from a prolonged and bloody civil war. Bashar needs to lead a new drive for a democratic nation that actually represents all the people of Syria - the Sunni, the Shiites, which means of course the Alawites of the presidency, Bashar Assad and also the Christians and Druz. It's current bloodletting offers no such vision, just a continence of  sectarianism and continued religious indifference.

Bashar, the eye doctor from London would do well to look for help from the young leaders of Lebanon, as well as from the UN. He should look to develop a new state that rejects a society based on sectarian values and tribal difference. A country proud of its secular ideals rather than one driven into Islamic dominance I don't find Bashar Hassad not guilty of involvement in Syrias painful daily trials and tribulations, in fact it is his weakness at times that has acted as a recruitment centre for the more dangerous elements amongst his regime and following to take matters into their own hands and arm the militia's currently carrying atrocities in a tit for tat fashion with the rebels. But the West will do itself no favours by simply blaming the regime for all Syrias ills and saying how awful these massacres are whist wringing their hands and refusing to take any any part in seeking a solution.

Diplomacy and dialogue with Bashar and with others in the region including leaders in Lebanon is in my view the only way that further disaster can be avoided and all out civil war can be averted, if of course it is not already too late. My hope above in writing this piece is to educate and illustrate, to offer an alternative to the over simplistic view churned out by the mass media at a British and world  audience angry at what is in front of them on their TV screens but feeling powerless to do anything about it and wondering why their own government lack the balls to intervene.

Not all intervention has to be led with the gun, its high time the so widely valued British diplomats did their job in supporting a future for Syria by promoting jaw jaw instead of war war. It's high time that my ex party leader Tony Blair got off of the speaking circuit and his backside and did his job as Middle East peace envoy and Quartet representative of the USA, UN, Russia and the EU,  and engage with Syria, and its high time that the British public were told the truth as to what is really happening in the world around them rather than a sanitised and western influenced version of it.