Robert Buckland Weblog

A freezing but bright Saturday morning made for brisk door knocking in the Lawns today.  I was out and about with local ward Councillors Brian Mattock and Fionuala Foley and a team of helpers that allowed us to talk with a large number of local residents.   We also bumped in to Alan Nix, Chair of the Lawn Residents Association who invited us in to speak to local residents at a reception in the Community Centre.   Alan and his team have worked very hard to improve facilities at the Centre, and thanks to Lottery funding and sheer willpower, new rooms and facilities have been added.  We recently held a meeting of the Swindon SEN Network in one of those new rooms, which had formerly been a store area but which is now ideal for group meetings such as ours.

A number of residents were talking with me today about Tony Blair and his evidence to the Iraq Inquiry.  I was surprised and disappointed that he did not express regret for the lives of servicemen and others that were lost during the war and its aftermath, even if he asserted that he believed that he made the right decision.

I had forgotten how self-righteous and evangelical Mr. Blair can sound at times when justifying himself.  This style may have worked with many people in the late 1990s, but it is utterly out of kilter with modern politics.  The expenses scandal may have accelerated the rise of cynicism with all politicians, but Tony Blair did much to damage relations between the political class and the public.   A war that was not in Britain’s national interest was entered into upon a false prospectus.   Try as he might, his premiership will be defined by this act of folly.