Blair: “I’ve given up trying to convince people that war in Iraq was right” – Media and blog round up: February 27th 2013

“Labour will fight the next general election on a pledge to retain Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent, senior party sources have said. Although some advisers to Ed Miliband want him to opt for a scaled-down, cheaper alternative to the current Trident system, there are growing signs that Labour will join the Conservatives in backing a £25billion “like-for-like” replacement…Officially, Labour is keeping its options open until Mr Alexander’s review is published. A senior Labour source said: “Our final decision will be based on ensuring we have a credible deterrent, achieved in the most cost effective way and moving towards multilateral disarmament to reduce warheads and stockpiles. We are genuinely open-minded about how we achieve that.”” – Independent

“Tony Blair said last night that he had given up trying to justify the invasion of Iraq. Speaking ahead of the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the former Prime Minister admitted that people were sometimes abusive towards him about the war but that he still managed to walk down the street.” – The Times(£)

“Asked whether he minded if ‘people call you a liar, some people call you a war criminal, protesters follow you; it’s difficult to walk down the street in a country’, he replied: ‘It really doesn’t matter whether it’s taken its toll on me. The fact is yes there are people who will be very abusive, by the way I do walk down the street and by the way I won an election in 2005 after Iraq. However, yes it remains extremely divisive and very difficult.’ He asked his critics to consider how the world would look if Saddam Hussein was still in power, adding: ‘In the end sometimes you come to a decision where whichever choice you take the consequences are difficult and the choice is ugly. This was one such case.’” – Daily Mail