Tony Blair sat in the royal box at the service in Horse Guards Parade. Some Forces families said his seat should have gone to bereaved parents DOMINIC LIPINSKI/PAOn a day when the Queen was joined by no fewer than 13 other members of the royal family as she unveiled a memorial to those who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the occasion was fated to be about one man: Tony Blair. As the former prime minister took his seat in the royal box for the service on Horse Guards Parade, bitterness over his responsibility for the war surfaced among the families invited to the ceremony. A number of bereaved parents who lost sons in Iraq condemned the war and said Mr Blair should not have attended the service. Six-year-old Jamey Thrumble, whose uncle John Thrumble was killed in Afghanistan in 2007, stands in front of the new memorial Times photographer Richard PohleTheir anger was echoed by the sister of Margaret Hassan, who felt bitterly let down that the family of the only female British…

Source: The Times March 09, 2017 17:01 UTC