Right war. Wrong reason

Every so often there is an event which confuses the usual prejudices of political folk. One such event was the rise of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who combined gay liberation with a dislike of immigrants, thereby scattering in all directions those on the Left whose belief systems are dependent on the assumption that all minorities have common cause against white conservatives.

The publication of the Hutton report and the appointment of Lord Butler to conduct a further inquiry into the intelligence which took Britain and America to war with Iraq is another such event. Over the past week avowed enemies of Alastair Campbell and the Downing Street university of spin have found themselves siding with the government because there is only one thing they detest more than the Prime Minister and that is the BBC. Meanwhile, those who supported the war but who have decided they would rather be rid of the Prime Minister at any price have found themselves cosying up to the I-told-you-so-ers of the anti-war brigade and demanding to know why we attacked Iraq when it is so patently obvious, as David Kay and George Bush acknowledge — and now, rather belatedly, even Tony Blair is coming round to admitting — that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction did not exist.