Daily View: Gordon Brown at the Chilcot inquiry

Gordon Brown's appearance at the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war has attracted a lot of comment.

In the Telegraph former Chief of Defence Staff Lord Guthrie challengs Gordon Brown's evidence:

"For Gordon Brown to say he has given the military all they asked for is not true. They asked for more helicopters but they were told they could not have any more.
In the end because of his budget restraints the helicopters arrived far too long after the conflict in Afghanistan had begun. He should have protected the helicopter budget but it was raided in 2004 and he was too late rectifying the situation."

Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, another former Chief of Defence Staff, added in the Telegraph that Chilcot did not address the issue of "chronic underfunding" across the board:

"Had our force levels been higher earlier then our risks would have been reduced earlier. I know that the Prime Minister 'gets' this now, but no amount of rewriting history can compensate for the years when he neither understood defence properly nor was persuaded to pay for it fully."

Bruce Anderson in the Independent adds to these criticisms:

"Lying to Parliament used to be regarded as just about the gravest offence that a politician could commit. But there is a worse one: lying to or about the armed forces. That is what Mr Brown has done, repeatedly: the worst crime of his premiership. No government could guarantee that there would never be a shortage of equipment. But any government worthy of the name would guarantee to uphold the military covenant. This is an implicit understanding between the nation and the armed forces."

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Independent compares Gordon Brown to Tony Blair and isn't impressed:

"But, like his predecessor, he is shockingly indifferent to the agony of the people most affected by the Iraq war, a war Brown still says was 'the right' thing to do for the 'right reasons'. His only regret? They should have thought a bit more about what to do next after they had defeated Saddam and pulled down his statues.
Not a word about the countless Iraqis killed when we bombed indiscriminately in civilian areas, no word of sorrow, however hollow or feigned, about the dead children or those now born in that blighted land with two heads and other grotesque abnormalities."

Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail echoes accusations of dishonesty levelled at the prime minister:

"What an astonishing six hours of slick dodginess. If you believe what our Prime Minister said to the Chilcot Inquiry yesterday, well, you'd probably believe that Sir Cyril Smith once dated Diana Dors and that Stonehenge was designed by Ken Dodd's dentist."

The Guardian editorial, unlike most of the comment, congratulates Gordon Brown on his performance:

"Mr Brown began with an unambiguous declaration that the Iraq war was the right policy, embarked on for the right reasons. He then produced an answer for every question that the panel asked, not least the potentially tricky ones about defence spending during Mr Brown's Treasury years. Mr Brown's reputation as a details man - the sort of man who really reads Annexe E, as one of the interviewees in Andrew Rawnsley's new book puts it - was much in evidence."

Links in full

Lord Guthrie | Telegraph | Gordon Brown did not give all we asked for
Richard Dannatt | Telegraph | Gordon Brown did not understand defence
Bruce Anderson | Independent | Mr Brown's contempt for the Army
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Independent | British Muslims are running out of friends
Quentin Letts | Daily Mail | Someone plainly told Gordon Brown to look relaxed
Guardian | Gordon Brown and Iraq: Every answer bar the big one