Gordon Brown to appear before the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry

Finally, Gordon Brown has conceded defeat and will be appearing before the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry after repeated calls by Nick Clegg amongst others.

Nick Clegg and democracy have won the day.

Now, Gordon Brown, who signed all of the cheques to pay for the illegal war in Iraq will have to appear in front of the Iraq Inquiry to explain his actions, potentially as early now as next week.

With Alistair Campbell giving evidence last week and then issuing a "what I meant to say statement", Jack Straw giving evidence yesterday, and Tony Blair due soon as well, the heat is being turned up on Labour and the Government.

Jack Straw, now the Justice Secretary, told the Iraq Inquiry yesterday that he supported the Iraq war “very reluctantly” when he was the Foreign Secretary at the time.

He added that he could have stopped Tony Blair going ahead with his intention of joining the US invasion and that he had warned Blair that it would be illegal just to overthrow Saddam and pressed for the United Nations to resolve the crisis peacefully.

I really doubt that Jack Straw could have stopped Blair given Tony has admitted he would have sent troops into Iraq, and would have found any reason to do so.

Jack Straw also said that he had presented Tony Blair with an alternative plan the evening before the crucial House of Commons vote on the war that did not involve committing British troops.

I am delighted that both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair will be called to appear in front of the Inquiry before the election because I think voters deserve to know the truth, but I also remind people that Cameron's Conservatives supported Tony Blair and Gordon Brown all the way.

It was Charles Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats that provided the loudest voice of opposition, especially in the House of Commons, which then turned into a massive wave of opposition across the UK.

Let us now see what Brown and Blair were hiding and have the Liberal Democrats and many others proved right once again.

Labour's threat to democracy - shut polling stations

A great article in the Times today revealing Labour's plan to close thousands of polling stations across the UK to save some money.

The Government should really be encouraging people to vote and take part in the democratic process in this country not stifling the process.

Other proposals in the Department of Justice working paper include; cutting the number of election staff, replace polling cards with e-mail requests, increasing candidates’ deposits (currently set at £500, returnable if the candidate gets over 5%), fixed-term parliaments and reducing security at the election count.

These proposals will save some money, I agree but we should encourage people to participate in the democratic process not hinder them.

However, it seems Jack Straw has now performed one of the quickest u-turns in political history and has told officials within the Department to drop those ideas, because apparently they were only ideas.

Good for Jack Straw for putting a halt to this but perhaps now he may put his officials to use and think of ways of encouraging more people to participate in our democratic process.

The Megrahi row continues

Wow, just as you think the row over Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds to go back home to Libya to see out the rest of his live is about to fizzle out - BANG - the Sunday Times releases details of leaked letters between Jack Straw and Kenny MacAskill.

The Sunday Times says "The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests."

Jack Straw is trying to brush this away by saying this is all "academic" now as the decision was made on compassionate grounds not under the prisoner transfer agreement.

The oil agreement was ratified some 6 weeks before but Jack Straw was also quick to pint out that the Scottish Government could have vetoed any move to send al-Megrahi home under the transfer agreement. The BBC website is also carrying the story this morning.

So, the row goes on and I suspect will do so now for some weeks, if not months.