Sunday 24 April
Guess what - the email isn't working again this morning. I ring again, and am told they only lift the limit for one day at a time - it appears I have to ring them at 8am every day for the rest of my life, or until May 5th, whichever is sooner.
Yes, the AG's Advice is all over the Mail, at last. As if we didn't already know...and on the same page a powerful article by deputy press officer Martin Bell and what amounts to a message of support from the Bishop of Durham. Wonderful. And the Sunday Sun (no, not that one, I've already explained this to you southerners) has a colourful two-page splash on Reg with a great picture of the bus with the Reg's Pledges banner.
Now the AG is back in the spotlight surely the screw must tighten on Blair. As Reg says when I ring him for a quote we really have to know what happened in that short window between the thirteen page Advice and the 'summary' presented to Cabinet. What happened to change his view so drastically? Certainly nothing happened to change the facts, except that as the weapons inspectors continued to search, the weapons looked more and more not there. He asked the PM for an assurance that Iraq had broken the terms of resolution 1441, which he presumably got, but the first Advice is largely about resolution 1441 not being a 'safe' basis for UK to go to war. However much he was assured Iraq had broken it, that, surely, could not have changed...
I finally see the text of Blair's interview with Paxperson. Maybe I went over the top a bit about him giving up on WMD as an excuse for war, but the verbal emphasis (and the visual, judging by the clip I saw) does seem to be on regime change. Hmmm. The sooner we have regime change in Sedgefield, the better.
Offers of help are now pouring in. I think people have noticed that something is happening in the previously one-party state of Sedgefield, and they want to be part of it. Take a train to Darlington from Kings Cross (it's only two and a half hours) and come and join us.
I would love to be able to end this weekend's diary by writing the words 'Reader, I planted them.' But, alas, it is not true. My potatoes are still above ground.
- ©Reg Keys, 2005 -
