Or Bodies, Boos and Bloopers
Today was not a good day for Blair. The rot started as the two main news stations, BBC News24 and Sky News, devoted 70 straight minutes to the repatiation ceremonies for the 14 British service personnel killed in a plane crash last week.
Later he had to go to the Trades Union Congress annual conference where there was a walk-out by one union, boos and protests throughout his speech and then he let slip confidential information that could have repercussions.
The plane carrying the bodies of the 14 servicement stopped briefly at RAF Brise Norton in Oxfordshire so that the formal inquest can be carried out by the Coroner who has experience of such legalities. The usual arrangement is for the ceremony to be held there but because of the location of most of the families round the main Nimrod base, it was moved to RAF Kinloss in Scotland. Scottish law does not have inquests but “Fatal Accident Inquiries” which would not be legally possible for these men.
The ceremony always follows the same pattern. It is intended to be both a repatriation of the body so that the family can organise a funeral and a salute from the nation in gratitude for their sacrifice. Six men from the dead’s unit carry the coffin from the plane. A seventh man, usually an NCO commands the party and has to steady the coffin as it is carried down the unloading slope. The senior officer of the regiment or in this case the base commander will salute as the coffin is pauses before being carried to a waiting hearse. Sombre music is played. As well as the families, a representative of the Queen, in today’s case her husband, and representatives of the Government and the Chiefs of Staff. The protocol is for men from the Navy (as the senior service) to take precedence by rank followed by the army and then the air force. Today that meant one of the youngest and most junior of the dead was removed first as he was a marine.
I explained that at length as it contrasts so much with the way the American dead and their families are treated.
Moving on to a slightly lighter note, Blair had to go to the Trades Union Congress to give his last speech to their annual conference before he retires. The Labour Party still gets most of its funding from the unions and they have half the votes at the Labour Conference and form one third of the electoral college for the election of leader.
As he got up to speak, the delegation from the RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport workers – the union that used to sponsor his deputy John Prescott) walked out. Other delegates held up placards protesting Iraq and urging him to resign. His speech was peppered with protests and catcalls which he attempted to make light of.
As he explained that a large part of the Western world were inclined to believe “the threat is George Bush and not Islamist terrorism”, a number of delegates shouted: “Yes.”
Some jeered “troops out”, to which Mr Blair replied angrily: “We should be proud of what we are doing to support democrats in Iraq and are proud of it.”
The speech ranged over some of the more contentious policies but also hinted at Blair’s idea of his legacy and perhaps his exit strategy, the peace attempts in the Middle East. After there was a heavily stage-managed Town Hall meeting type session where he answered pre-submitted questions. In one answer he let slip that the unemployment figures to be released tommorrow will show a reduction. That was his great mistake.
There figures are prepared by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which is soon to become an arms-length agency rather than part of the government civil service. The numbers are released to the Government exactly fourty and one half hours before they are officially published. This is done under the terms of strictest confidence as they could affect the stock market and lead to “insider trading”.
By revealing the figures Blair breaches this agreement. The last time it happened was in the 1990s and the culprit was Michael Heseltine. Then John Prescott called the mistake a “monumental blunder” ans suggested Heseltine had done it to divert attention from the internal civil war in the Tory government. (Plus ca change!) When the ONS becomes that arms-length agency it could use today’s incident to justify refusing the advance advice of statistics. That would mean the Government would have to wait to get the numbers at the same time as eveyone else. They would not be able to prepare their spin in advance. As they often spin so hard you can hear the whirling, this would potentially be disasterous for them.
All in all not a good day for Blair.
