Blair Squishes Envoy's Book

The Guardian reports that:

The Foreign Office has effectively killed the publication of a controversial fly-on-the-wall memoir of the Iraq war by one of Britain's most senior diplomats, which would have called the conflict 'politically illegitimate'.

In a move that brought immediate accusations of censorship from its author, The Observer can reveal that Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations during the preparations for war in 2003 and the Prime Minister's envoy to Iraq following the war, has been blocked in his efforts to reveal 'certain truths' about the conflict. He was uniquely well-placed to provide the inside story of the conflict and its aftermath.

But this weekend his publishers in Britain and America were set to pull the plug on the book after the Foreign Office demanded drastic cuts and the removal of references to conversations between Greenstock and the major players in the conflict, including Tony Blair and the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.

According to those in the know, the book is highly unlikely to see the light of day while Blair is still Prime Minister.

Which hopefully won't be long. My Grandad was a founder of the British Labour Party and he is doubtless revolving in his grave at what Blair has done to his beloved movement - especially in these last two years. If the old man was alive right now he would be sorely temped to take Tony behind the pit-head shed and beat the crap out of him.