Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell today challenged Tony Blair at Prime Minister’s Questions to name the minister responsible for withholding information from the OECD.
Mr Blair replied: “If you want to blame anyone for this, blame me. I am perfectly happy to take responsibility for it.”
Ming followed up by asking: “Whatever happened to Robin Cook’s ethical foreign policy?”
The Guardian reports:
Sir Menzies has taken a leading role in criticising the government’s attempts to block scrutiny of the deal.
Yesterday he said: “We need a full investigation to determine whether the Ministry of Defence has been directly involved in processing payments to Prince Bandar.
I don’t really know if its fair to resurect the ghost of Robin Cook to attack the Prime Minister. Bad form Ming, bad form.
Are you saying we can’t criticise Blair for failing to follow through on Government policy if the original minister has since passed on?
I suspect Mr Cook would think it a perfectly valid criticism.
Al-Yamamah was/is a thoroughly rotten business and Sir Menzies Campbell was brave to speak out against it. It is precisely Western arms sales to and support of the Saudi regime that has led to the rise of Usama bin Laden and other dissidents – and hence the terrorist attacks against us. But a lot of British jobs depend on war-mongering.