Well for the view in Downing St.
on today’s events let’s talk to our Political Editor
Andrew Marr Andy, is it safe to assume that Mr. Blair, like so many of the rest of us, was glued to his television for parts of today? It certainly is. He and his advisers have
been watching this and you know all the usual caveats apply there could be some ghastly scenes
in the future there could be terrorist attacks
all sorts of things could go wrong. But frankly Huw, the main mood
is unbridled relief. I’ve been watching ministers
wander around with smiles like split watermelons. Well, Mr. Blair has had his share of
troubles and worries as you rightly say
over the past few weeks we’ve talked about them many times –
to what extent has that changed now today? Well I think this does one thing. It draws a line under what had been
before this war a period of…
well a faint air of pointlessness almost
was hanging over Downing Street. There was all these slightly tawdry arguments
and scandals – that is now history. Mr. Blair is well aware that all his critics
out there in the party and beyond aren’t going to thank him because they’re only human
for being right when they’ve been wrong. And he knows that there might be trouble ahead
as I’ve said. But I think this is a very, very important
moment for him it gives him a new freedom and a
new self-confidence. He confronted many critics. I don’t think anybody after this is going
to be able to say of Tony Blair that he is somebody who is driven by
the drift of public opinion or focus groups or opinion polls. He took all of those on. He said that they would be able to take Baghdad
without a bloodbath and that in the end the Iraqis
would be celebrating. And on both of those points he
has been proved conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious
even for his critics
not to acknowledge that tonight he stands as a larger man
and a stronger prime minister as a result. Andrew – many thanks.
jesoby says:
Not Andrew's finest hour. No one ever doubted the Iraqi regular forces would be quickly overwhelmed. The big questions were what had Saddam got to do with Al Qaeda (nothing), where were the weapons of mass destruction (there weren't any and Blair did know this) and what plans were in place for after the occupation (inadequate to say the least).
bsjunior says:
thank you. good evidence.
dutchgoing says:
@splattyfish How did Huw Edwards ever win a BAFTA? The BBC news is shallow, parochial and dull. When it snowed last year they devoted all of the news for five days to it. They don't have regular European news items and have you noticed that he and Fiona Bruce never work weekends. Marr has shown his little Englander colours in his frankly embarassing documentaries about UK culture & identity, frankly he's not very good at it. One day Tony Blair will be brought to justice.
dutchgoing says:
I wanted to add that every so often the BBC news has an item running down some EU country, the last one was about how the Germans are in economic trouble because a saw manufacturer in Berlin was having difficulties and a woman in the same city was having her heating benefit cut. They based their journalism on that. Next time it will be another country. The BBC is a propaganda machine perpetuating the myth that the UK is at the centre of things and of course better than its neighbours.
redword2007 says:
This is clip demonstrates all that is wrong with British corporate journalism. Marr could not have provided a better propaganda boost to the Blair regime if it has been written by Alistair (Goebbles) Campbell himself.
Indul1 says:
Amazing stuff by marr, he learnt nothing from the beating Chomsky in 1996 gave him and this is just about the most amazing confirmation of the secular priesthood that you can imagine, I mean when I heard John Simpson boast he never gave an interview to Serbian state TV during the NATO air war against Serbia because it was a prop tool of the Milosevic government, what other interpretation can you put on this, it ranks up with some of the most shattering pro government propaganda you could invent.
newsreeldemocracy says:
This clip should be played every Sunday before the Andrew Marr show and every day before the 10 O'clock News to remind me to switch off the TV.
newsreeldemocracy says:
Andrew Marr knows which arses to lick on his way to the top of political reporting at the BBC.
Michael Black says:
How can he deliver this servile grovelling without embarrassment? If I did it, I would feel ashamed of myself.
AssSprinkle says:
Tool.
robicenco1 says:
Watching this hideous performance from Marr makes me feel pretty much indifferent to what he personally has suffered over the past year. Sorry, but it does. This is journalism? This is the work of the BBC's political editor? It is naked cheerleading for a war of aggression that has killed six and possibly seven figures' worth of human beings. Hell mend Blair and hell mend Marr and let this contemptible video clip be the latter's epitaph.
John Dough says:
Pathetic
Toxic EAS 23 says:
Don't watch propaganda news, watch RT news.
Steve Ennever says:
I'm going to throw up……..
Andrew Wade says:
Novara Media were right. That really is like something out of "Russia Today". Although RT is a bit less open in its grovelling…
hairymarx says:
"Split watermelons?" The melon is Marr.
LKeet6 says:
quite a lot of bad things happened after this…
Ian Mortimer says:
No bloodbath?? At least 500,000 Iraqis died during the conflict. Large parts of Baghdad were left without electricity and running water for months after the invasion, now they've got ISIS running everywhere, I'm sure they're over the moon.
Shane O'Sullivan says:
ALL the media may as well have got down on their knees and taken Bush and Blair in their mouths, the way they blindly acquiesced to this invasion. They are as complicit as it is possible to be
Willy Bach says:
People may like to watch this video and read the transcript which demonstrates just how subservient, craven and dishonest the BBC was when it was promoting Tony Blair and his wars of aggression. Andrew Marr should be selling rat poison, not commenting on politics.
From May 2002 till January 2004 I was in Uganda. Our only source of world news was the BBC World Service, which dutifully promoted the war in Iraq with embedded reporters. It was the most awful, uncritical propaganda. I lost any remnant of respect for the BBC during this time. The murder of Dr David Kelly and the unsatisfactory treatment of this event only added to our grief.
No Bart says:
IDIOT.
Barbara Richards says:
It's the first time I have seen this and I am absolutely disgusted. Andrew Marr should be made to watch this several times a day for ever
Anthony Scaife says:
Is he talking about some completely different event?
TheOrbit14 says:
Despicable toad.
Thomas Barlow says:
It is worth remembering as well that all the journalists that spoke out against this war lost their jobs in one or another.
After the Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan the only journalists left are pro war.
Jay Kay says:
what kind of a compliant, controlled society would have this no-mark cunt as inquisitor-in-chief?
jack9798 says:
Outrageous that British people are forced to pay a licence fee so Andrew Marr can lick Tony Blair's warmongering balls live on TV when Marr would happily do it for free in the privacy of his own home.
Mick Talsom says:
what a sad, atrocious clown. Utterly disgusting
the81kid says:
This was the beginning of the end of journalism, where journalists want to be/make the news instead of just report it.
AbsoluteZero says:
He might as well have said, Tony is a great guy, lick lick lick, fawn fawn fawn, I will protect you oh gracious leader of mine. Command me and it shall be done! I will protect thee and establishment…
Jukka Penttinen says:
"Think of the press as a great keyboard
on which the government can play" – joseph goebbels
Kailash Patel says:
Seven years after Chomsky thrashed him like a bitch…Marr shows he learnt nothing….
wkmac2 says:
In 1996' Marr interviewed Noam Chomsky (the interview is on YouTube) on the Propaganda Model of the Media. Marr tired to argue Chomsky's claims and yet here he is thus proving them. The irony!
Kaveighleen Jacaster says:
Check your pockets and see who's pulling out your wallet. These clowns just don't learn.
Me Too says:
0:14 (7/7) But, hey, that didn't actually happen on Blair's watch so no foul then!
Ed Peck says:
I'm ashamed to say I once liked Marr. The man is a bootlicking cowardly sycophant who helped legitimise an illegal war that killed well over one million people. Utterly disgusting.
justmadeit2 says:
I made something in 2012 called War is not heroic. On my channel if anyone wants to see it ? Just type in War is not heroic. Thanks
Clem Alford says:
Marr is still on TV politically pontificating, all be it after a stroke. The Establishment have circled the wagons and got the guns out to defend themselves. This time the cover up of the Muslim rape gangs, incarcerating Robinson for exposing it publicly, while PM May and her husband do a multi billion pounds arms deal with the Wahhabi Saudis. Did Marr mention any of this? Of course not it might screw up her deal.
geraldkrasnerable says:
Propoganda
bigdaz7272 says:
Marr the contemptible sack of shite is still a British Bullshitting Corporation propagandist selling misinformation and asking all the wrong questions to this day in his own show. Who said crime doesn't pay.
arthur d says:
I smell shite
Jay Mac says:
….aaand that's why I refuse to watch bbc or pay TV licence…Tony b LIAR is a war criminal
Mark Richards says:
This has not aged well. The BBC plays its part in making these crimes possible and so has blood on it hands. Venezuela is next.