"Palpably Absurd" -- Firemen were right
From Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber (and from Newsnight/the Independent) we have this nice reminder of why the PM should resign. His judgement is very poor.We are asked to accept that, [contrary to all history], contrary to all intelligence, Saddam decided to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd. (Tony Blair, 18 March 2003)
I have to accept that we have not found them and we may not find them. He [Saddam] may have removed or hidden or even destroyed those weapons. (Tony Blair 6 July 2004)
Chris Brooke, at the Stoa, reminds us (and to keep me happy) that dear old Melanie Phillips has also described something related as 'palpably absurd'.
Robin Cook's diaries have become the latest in his armoury of WMD to fire at Tony Blair. But his claim that Blair let slip to him before the war that Saddam had no WMD to threaten the west is palpably absurd
What a strange coincidence! Let's face it, 'palpably absurd' is not a comment one hears oneself saying very often. So I went over to They Work For You to find out how many times our elected representatives had said 'Palpably Absurd' in Parliament since 2001.
The answer is just three. Obviously Blair's first comment quoted above. Also a speech by Austin Mitchell, on reforming of the CAP (to say we have to leave the EU if we want reform is 'palpably absurd').
The third however is our own dear leader again. In late 2002 he had this to say about the review into the Fireman's pay:
The offer came out of the independent review by George Bain, the man who headed the commission that introduced the minimum wage and who sat with two others, one from local government and the other last year's president of the TUC and himself a trade union leader. The idea that such a review was biased in some way is, therefore, palpably absurd. It was an entirely persuasive and reasonable report that I commend to people to read
So now we know. The fireman were right and the report was biased.
posted by Matthew @ 7/07/2004 03:40:00 PM
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