The Chilcot inquiry highlighted the striking extent to which the then prime minister, Tony Blair, was able to side-line cabinet and collective decision-making in the run up to the Iraq war. A report published today by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), which I chair, finds that there are still a worrying lack of safeguards in place to prevent this from happening again in the future. In its inquiry, PACAC looked at what lessons are still to be learned from the Chilcot inquiry, both for the machinery of government and for the conduct of public inquiries. As part of this, PACAC closely considered Chilcot’s conclusions regarding the way in which Tony Blair was able to bypass Cabinet government and collective decision-making. Chilcot argues,…

Source: The Times March 16, 2017 03:22 UTC