The Grauniad is really pulling out the stops over this Sir Tony bollocks.
Tony Blair’s former defence secretary Geoff Hoon has claimed he was told to burn a memo from the attorney general that cast doubt on the legality of the Iraq war.
In revelations that critics say cast further doubt on the decision to award the former prime minister a knighthood, Hoon recalled in extracts from his recently published memoir that Blair’s chief of staff had instructed him to burn the document...
https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... n-could-be
Is the paper run by swivel-eyed moonhowling Corbynites, or something? They really have the daggers out for him.
While I'm no fan of Tony, I'm no fan of Geoff Hoon either.
Hoon wrote in his memoir, See How They Run, that he had had been under pressure from Mike Boyce, the chief of defence staff, to provide him with clear legal direction that his forces could take action in Iraq, in lieu of a UN resolution authorising force, the Daily Mail reported.
He claims to have received a copy of complex advice from the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, which was “very long and very detailed legal opinion”.
He wrote: “I was sent a copy from Downing St under conditions of considerable secrecy. I was told that it was for my eyes only and that I should not discuss its contents with anyone else. I had no idea who else had received a copy.”
So far, so normal.
“Moreover, when my principal private secretary, Peter Watkins, called Jonathan Powell in Downing St and asked what he should now do with the document, he was told in no uncertain terms that he should ‘burn it’.”
Still nothing to see here. I find it hard to believe the SofS and his advisors did not know the MOD has standard procedures in place for the destruction of classified material.
Hoon said the document was not burned. “I agreed that we should lock the document securely into an MoD safe to which only he had access. For all I know it is probably still there.”
This is nothing short of criminal. That a top-classification document was not disposed of properly, and may well be lying around waiting for someone to find it? The mind boggles.
But yeah. All War Criminal Tony's fault.
Addendum
It's a sign of the Grauniad's desperation that they indulge in churnalism of this sort. The deputy political editor is regurgitating a story from the Daily fucking Mail, a paper which has absolutely no history of distorting or sensationalising non-stories to make them appear more sinister.
I can hear Mrs Haywood* now: "Check your sources."
* Teacher and Head of History Department when I was doing my O Level history.
100 %
- By Bones McCoy