Iraq war revelations leave most people mistrusting ministers

[Khephra]

Iraq war revelations leave most people mistrusting ministers

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
Thursday September 9, 2004
The Guardian

Trust in ministers and MPs to tell the truth has been eroded since the war on Iraq, a detailed survey on public attitudes revealed yesterday.

It shows that 60% of the 1,000 people questioned had lost trust in ministers since Tony Blair declared war on Iraq. Some 42% were swayed by the revelations over the handling of the war by the Hutton inquiry - and some 23% cited the "dodgy dossier", with its false claim that Saddam Hussein could launch an attack with weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, as a reason for believing ministers were strangers to the truth.

The survey, commissioned by the anti-sleaze watchdog, the committee on standards in public life, reveals that 70% of those questioned did not trust ministers to tell the truth, while 24% believed what they said.

MPs fared little better. Some 65% believed they were untrustworthy, while 27% thought they were generally honest. However, constituency MPs were thought to be twice as trustworthy on local issues.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1300272,00.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Blair impeachment web site crashes due to unexpected interest

www.ImpeachBlair.org received 10,000 hits per day
Parliamentary correspondent, Computing 07 Sep 2004

A website set up to publicise an attempt to impeach Prime Minister Tony Blair for 'high crimes and misdemeanours' leading to the war in Iraq was overwhelmed by massive interest and crashed a day after being launched.

A thousand hits an hour were recorded on www.ImpeachBlair.org after the proceedings were revealed on Channel 4. The editors switched servers to restore availability within hours.

The Welsh and Scottish Nationalist Parties behind the move reported an average of 10,000 hits a day, over 10,000 copies of the report were downloaded and several hundred registered support.

Newly re-elected SNP leader Alex Salmond said: 'The level of traffic on the site shows there is real public support to bring the Prime Minister to account for his actions in Iraq.' <snip>

http://www.computing.co.uk/news/1157883 :evilgrin: