rational geekery

And did you notice any direct criticism whatsoever of our political masters across the Atlantic by anyone on the panel or the audience...?

Ferguson himself criticised the bullshit that led us to war, arguing he was hoodwinked.

But Cameron's Tory Party are looking to cosy up again to the Republicans again. So the Tory Vice-Chair didn't exploit it. Shame, as Kaletski, in yesterdays Times suggested.

Thirdly, a decision to withdraw from Iraq and reverse Mr Blair’s uncritical obeisance to President Bush’s foreign policy would present David Cameron with an impossible dilemma. If he supported the new anti-Bush policy, Mr Cameron would unquestionably split his party, finally exhausting the patience of the pro-American, Thatcherite right-wing Tories. If, as is much more likely, Mr Cameron decided to oppose the Iraq withdrawal, he would alienate precisely the middle-class, socially progressive swing voters on whom he has been banking for a Tory revival. By identifying himself as a Bush camp-follower on this all-important issue, Mr Cameron would also confirm Labour’s strongest line of attack against the “new” Tories: it would appear that Mr Cameron’s progressive Toryism was no more than an advertising slogan, to be followed by a swing to extreme right-wing policies, in the same way as the “compassionate conservatism” of George W. Bush.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1061-2195809,00.html