While our Congress hesitates to enforce their vital role of oversight which
is called for in the constitution, the British Parliament may be enforcing their
own. As being reported in today’s
Sunday Herald:
MPs organising the campaign to impeach Tony Blair believe they have
enough support to force a highly damaging Commons investigation into the
Prime Minister?s pre-war conduct. A renewed attempt to impeach Blair over
claims he misled parlia ment in making his case for war against Iraq, will
be made in the Commons within the next two weeks.The impeachment process effectively stalled last year when just 23 MPs
signed a Commons motion. But the scale of the government?s defeat on its
anti-terror legislation last week ? where 49 Labour MPs rebelled ? has
galvanised the momentum for proceedings to be invoked.Organisers say they are expecting 200 cross-party signatures, including
those of former government ministers, to force the Commons to set up a Privy
Council investigation that would examine in detail the case for impeachment
against Blair.The size of the Labour revolt, allied to unified opposition benches, is
said to have changed the climate inside the Commons.SNP leader, Alex Salmond, one of the key figures in the impeachment
campaign, said he now believed that the cross-party attempt to bring the
government to account over the Iraq war ?would become more urgent than
predicted problems associated with social legislation in England and Wales?.Following the Commons defeat, it was predicted that future flashpoints
for Blair would include a new education reform bill, likely to be presented
next spring and new legislation to broaden reform inside the NHS with
greater competition from the private sector.
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While there would be no direct impact on President Bush, the indirect impact
could be very damaging. You can be assured if Parliament starts impeachment
hearings against Tony Blair, all eyes from America will be set on our ally.
The most critical item would be the Downing Street Memos. An inquiry into
those memos abroad could very well lead to damming evidence against Bush that in
fact he was cooking the intelligence to lead us to war. With all the other
problems facing the White House and the declining support of the Republican
Party, an inquiry abroad could very well spark one at home too.