John Baron

Conservative Party | Billericay and District

Points of View

Iraq

Having voted against the war last year, I believe the Butler Report confirms that this country was duped into a war under false pretences.

For the report has shown that there was a very wide margin indeed between what the intelligence services told the Prime Minister and what the Prime Minister told Parliament and the country.

War is the ultimate responsibility and act of politicians and yet in many respects it also illustrates their ultimate failure. The crime here is that the Prime Minister turned qualified judgments into unqualified certainties and this country, as a result, sleepwalked into war.

Parliament was partly to blame because, although it was not privy to all the intelligence reports which made its task more difficult, there was still not enough questioning of the evidence at hand. Lord Butler was right – there was collective failure, but the Prime Minister’s responsibility for that failure was paramount.

However, what I find even more worrying than questions over the Prime Minister’s integrity is the attempt by Tony Blair and others to now justify the war by saying that, although WMD might not have been found, the world is still a better place without Saddam Hussein. This is very dangerous talk.

Civilised nations do not go goose-stepping around the world invading countries because they think they may be a threat and then, when found they are not, justifying their actions by claiming that the world is a better place. That would be the law of the jungle. It is illegal because it contradicts Article 2 of the UN Charter. We all agree Saddam Hussein’s regime was revolting – but that was not sufficient justification in itself to go to war.

This mistake must not be made again, and there is less danger of it happening again if world leaders accept that their actions must be both legal and credible, and possess that all-important quality – the moral highground.

Environmental teaching

The sooner we learn about the importance of safeguarding the environment the better. That is why I was delighted to help recently with the ‘tree-planting’ ceremony in the sensory garden of Beauchamps School, Wickford.

This garden will be open to the public and will be an integral part of the new adjoining Environmental Business Centre of the school which will help students better understand environmental issues and waste management.

Helping at the ceremony was Bob Hills, Trustee of the Cleanaway Pitsea Marshes Trust, which generously made a major financial donation to this excellent community project.