John Williams press statement
John Williams, renowned classical guitarist, said today 29 April 2005:
Until 4 years ago I was a member of the Labour Party and have voted Labour all my life - from before Tony Blair received his free university tuition. I even voted for him in the leadership election. It is not easy to change the habits of a lifetime, but there are watershed moments and this is one of them.
How many times have we heard the standard threat to wavering Labour voters - "Don't let the Tories in by the back door"? Well, if I could vote here in Sedgefield it would be a simple choice - send Reg Keys in by the front door, and I would add, thank you Reg from the bottom of my heart for restoring some dignity, honour and hope when we all desperately need it.
I have just returned from the US and during interviews and after concerts people continually asked me - what is it with this Tony Blair? Why does he support Bush? It was a difficult one to answer - but I could explain with pride that in our parliamentary system even the Prime Minister has to be elected in his own constituency and that, at this election, a man called Reg Keys is standing against Tony Blair to expose the illegality of the Iraq war and the continuing dishonest justifications used to defend it. I also explained the circumstances which have brought Reg Keys into this crucial moment of choice. We are all too familiar with the distortion of facts and many other stronger words describing Tony Blair's word spinning and less than honest statements - but we know the simple real facts.
1. If there were to be further action following UN resolution 1441 it was for the UN to take that action not individual countries. That is why Secretary General, Kofi Annan himself stated that the war was illegal, and
2. Tony Blair misled us and Parliament with his claim that we were threatened by WMD in 45 minutes.
Tony Blair has continually tried to defend himself by saying he honestly believes he made the right decision - maybe he does, but it is very dangerous and frightening when someone believes they were justified in not telling the truth - to borrow Hans Blix's phrase "we are not talking toothpicks" - this is young men being sent to war and dying for their country, as Tom Keys and over 80 other UK soldiers did; that is the bottom line. This is before we even begin to count the tens of thousands of Iraqi casualties. At the very least Tony Blair should take the ultimate responsibility for a tragic mistake and resign.
- ©Reg Keys, 2005 -
