Hopes of peace have gone to Iraq and ruin

THE FRIDAY THING:

IF it wasn’t so worryingly serious, the news that Tony Blair has been made peace envoy would surely be one of the jokes of the year - especially when war-torn Iraq faces more bombs, bullets and explosions.

Don’t get the idea we can count on the peace envoy to do anything positive about it.

Look at the impact of Blair’s previous excursion into Iraq in 2003 as a glove puppet for George Bush - still very much in evidence in 2014.

The Blair-Bush adventure, which cost many lives, was a scene-setter for what is happening today. Murder and mayhem have gripped Iraq, Syria and Libya, but the peace envoy remains in sabre-rattling mood, arguing that had we pressed ahead with the military options to rid the region of its dictators (putting heaven knows how many more lives at risk) peace would have been restored.

He needs to tell that to the growing number of soldiers of Iraq who are now being murdered by an Al Qaeda force killing people in cold blood and in control of huge areas of central and northern Iraq.

Civil war is the likely outcome of the original campaign by Bush and Blair to force Saddam Hussein out of office.

It goes without saying that claims Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that could somehow be used against Great Britain played a key part in furthering the ambitions of Bush and Blair.

What will the peace envoy do now? Hopefully he will find a nice quiet room in one of the properties he owns and lie down under the duvet for a year or two. It is certainly hard to see him getting many invitations to be a peace envoy for anyone else any time soon.



FINAL WORD: Maybe not mad but cheeky is the reaction of the good folk of Calais as they try to gain entry to Britain.

Some 35 refugees are vowing to refuse food until they are allowed across the Channel. They also want houses with toilets and showers, three meals a day and freedom from police controls and evictions.

The migrants have threatened to sew their lips together until their demands are met.

Anything that keeps them quiet would be welcome.