No sexing up, insists Blair: "Tony Blair yesterday faced the more immediate charge that he had "sexed up" the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. "This was an absolutely fundamental charge," the Prime Minister told the Hutton inquiry. "This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which . . . if true would have merited my resignation."

Blair's resignation or dismissal is certainly merited, but I find it hard to believe that he would resign on principle. He will only resign if forced. It seems to me that Blair targeted the BBC and Gilligan's report because of a calculation that that particular article would be vulnerable to a counterattack. But one particular article does not deserve such attention. It is not a particularly important one either. There must be at least a 100 or more other articles (see this blog) which taken together succeed in demolishing the case for war as a pretext of lies. Blair may be able to score some points against the BBC and Gilligan but he is swimming against the tide of history which will certainly judge the war to be a US-inspired act of aggression on a pretext of lies.

No sexing up, insists Blair: "Tony Blair yesterday faced the more immediate charge that he had "sexed up" the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. "This was an absolutely fundamental charge," the Prime Minister told the Hutton inquiry. "This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which . . . if true would have merited my resignation."

Blair's resignation or dismissal is certainly merited, but I find it hard to believe that he would resign on principle. He will only resign if forced. It seems to me that Blair targeted the BBC and Gilligan's report because of a calculation that that particular article would be vulnerable to a counterattack. But one particular article does not deserve such attention. It is not a particularly important one either. There must be at least a 100 or more other articles (see this blog) which taken together succeed in demolishing the case for war as a pretext of lies. Blair may be able to score some points against the BBC and Gilligan but he is swimming against the tide of history which will certainly judge the war to be a US-inspired act of aggression on a pretext of lies.