Two former chiefs of the British civil service have said before the Chilcot war inquiry that Tony Blair took Britain to war in Iraq with out the approval of his labour cabinet.
Lord Turnbull and Lord Wilson of Dinton totally refuted the claims made by ex PM Tony Blair that ministers in his cabinet "knew the score" and had known that Blair had agreed to invade Iraq with America after the 9/11 atrocity on the United States.
When both men appeared before the Chilcot war inquiry they presented a vison of new labour being a government run from the sofa! They absolutely refuted the statements made by Tony Blair to the Inquiry previously that his ministers were kept up to speed on the steps leading to war.
This goes a long way to explain why the late Robin Cook resigned and Gordon Brown's claim that he was kept in the dark.
How a Chancellor of the Exchequer can not know about a forthcoming war is totally beyond me as obviously a budget would be needed but perhaps Blair treated Brown like a mushroom and kept him in the dark and fed him on manure! Lord Turnbull said that the labour cabinet were not asked for their approval until the eve of the invasion.
So late in the day they had no true choice other than to simply accede or the PM would fall like the king in a game of chess and the cabinet members would lose their positions and lifestyle.
This does make the labour cabinet appear to be like putty in Blairs grip.
Lord Wilson had retired from office in 2002 and was Turnbull's predecessor he stated that during his period as Britain's leading civil servant that the cabinet was not aware that a decision had been taken to combine with the US and invade Iraq.
Was it simply that Blair was to all intents and purposes a dictator and the members of his cabinet were sheep and to nervous to topple the leader as perhaps they too would fall from power? The evidence from both Lord Wilson and Lord Turnbull is total contrast with that of Blair who claimed on Friday 21st January 2011 that he initially discussed the intention of removing Saddam Hussein with Bush the US President in November 2001 and that the intention of invasion was established and well known from thereon in.
Obviously well known to Blair and Bush but not to the British electorate.
One has to ask the question where was Gordon Brown the Chancellor of the Exchequer the pension expert at this time? Some claim he was hiding in his bunker trying to overthrow Tony Blair and that might be why he was kept out of the loop.
Tony Blair was accused by Lord Turnbull of breaking the ministerial code by failing to ensure that the attorney general was asked for his advice as to the legality of the war in plenty time.
A former senior diplomat Sir Roderic Lyne a member of the inquiry pointed out that ministers were being asked to take joint responsibility with out receiving a single paper on the topic of a war in the last 18 months.
Lord Turnbull agreed that key documents had been kept from the cabinet.
He went on to say that it was surprising that many ex ministers had remained to loyal to Tony Blair.
Both Lord Wilson and Lord Turnbull were critical of New Labour for trying to do away with cabinet government and introducing a system by which Blair could push his policy along in "ad hoc" meetings with selected groups of sympathisers.
They refuted claims that the system was similar to that during Baroness Thatcher's period as PM.
The two men had both worked under Thatcher, and as you would expect, she did not cut cormers as Blair had, she always ran a proper cabinet government.
There can be absolutely no doubt that Tony Blair failed the Country and after 13 years of Labour I have no faith at all in Ed Miliband.