As usual, it's all about Iraq
John Harris
October 17, 2006 05:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_harris/2006/10/as_usual_its_all_about_iraq.html
There it was: the blighted state of mainstream modern politics,
dramatised in two neat acts. At this morning's Downing Street press
briefing, the prime minister attempted to address the unease
surrounding health policy via confident statements of success, and a
one-off presentation from Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical
officer. And much good it did him: once the usual ritual had been
resumed and the assembled journos could ask their questions, out it
inevitably came: Sir Richard Dannatt, The Lancet report and the alleged
665,000 deaths, and the vexed questions of what British forces were
there for and when they might return.
Even in the slew of questions about the supposed "debate" surrounding
the niqab - which in Burnley, say, must surely look like a closed and
extremely one-way conversation featuring the screeching voices of the
tabloids and whichever minister has decided to pipe up that day - the
I-word loomed in the middle-distance, the source of the multi-cultural
cracks that currently seem to be turning into chasms.
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