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Robin Cook

  • Why I cannot be part of this divisive war
    9 August 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    This is an extract from Robin Cook’s resignation speech to the House of Commons, 17 March 2003. It electrified Parliament and will be remembered as one of the most important addresses in modern Westminster history.
    by Robin Cook
    This is the first time for 20 years that I have addressed the House from the back benches. I must confess that I had forgotten how much better the view is from here.
    I have chosen to address the House first on why I cannot support a war without international (…)

  • The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means
    10 July 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    The G8 must seize the opportunity to address the wider issues at the root of such atrocities
    by Robin Cook
    I have rarely seen the Commons so full and so silent as when it met yesterday to hear of the London bombings. A forum that often is raucous and rowdy was solemn and grave. A chamber that normally is a bear pit of partisan emotions was united in shock and sorrow. Even Ian Paisley made a humane plea to the press not to repeat the offence that occurred in Northern Ireland when (…)

  • The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
    28 August 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    This Strips Away the Last Vestiges of Moral Authority
    By ROBIN COOK
    Those close to him mutter, under their breath of course, that Tony Blair’s only moment of doubt over Iraq came in the wake of the exposure of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
    This is plausible, as our Prime Minister possesses a Gladstonian moral imperative. He believes that any economy with the truth over the threat from Saddam’s vanishing weapons of mass disappearance would be forgiven in the short run by his electorate and in (…)

  • Britain’s worst intelligence failure, and Lord Butler says no one is to blame
    17 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    What a shame that Anthony Eden did not have a Butler around to explain he was not responsible for Suez
    By Robin Cook
    What a wonderful specimen of the British establishment is Lord Butler of Brockwell. Urbane, unflappable and understanding. He should be put on display somewhere as a prize example of our ruling classes. Possibly the Victoria and Albert Museum would provide the right grandeur and period ambiance.
    There is an emotional disconnect between his measured tones and the brutal (…)

  • Iraq will never be sorted out until Mr Blair and President Bush admit their mistakes
    14 April 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    Independent
    Robin Cook The coalition needs to find a model of reconstruction that gives priority to jobs in Iraq over profits in Texas. IT is almost exactly a year since a triumphalist President Bush in combat fatigues swooped on to the deck of an aircraft carrier to announce that "major combat operations" were over in Iraq. Yet for the past week television bulletins have been carrying violent images from Iraq that look suspiciously like major combat operations. Conquering Iraq (…)