Results 1-18 of 18 for iraq speaker:Tony Wright

Opposition Day — [14th allotted day]: Iraq Inquiry (24 Jun 2009) has video

Tony Wright: Following that injunction, I think that we should all try not to revisit the substantive arguments about the Iraq war, on which we all took vigorous and divergent positions. For myself, I anticipated that I would support the Iraq war. I was a great admirer of the former Prime Minister—as, indeed, I am a great admirer of the current Prime Minister, and as I will be of any future Prime...

Opposition Day — [14th allotted day]: Iraq Inquiry (24 Jun 2009) has video

Tony Wright: ..., and the sky did not fall in. Government did not become impossible, and in the present circumstances it was just not sustainable—and nor should it be—to announce an inquiry into the Iraq war and say that it would be held entirely in private. The composition of the inquiry is well worth attending to, as several hon. Members have noted. What is the best balance of expertise that...

Oral Answers to Questions — Children, Schools and Families: Iraq (15 Jun 2009) has video

Tony Wright: ...clearly is an objective, but to establish the truth of what happened. Secondly, the Public Administration Committee, which I chair, has been taking an interest in the form that any inquiry into Iraq should take. Last week, we held a private seminar of very distinguished people, and we are about to issue a report. I have to say that those people felt that the Franks inquiry was appropriate...

Opposition Day — [9th Allotted Day]: Iraq War Inquiry (25 Mar 2009) has video

Tony Wright: ...would be why they failed during that critical period—the one time when they needed to be effective. As we now know, they had it within their power to prevent British engagement in the Iraq war. The Conservative party should immediately put in place an inquiry as to why the official Opposition failed during that period.

Opposition Day — [9th Allotted Day]: Iraq War Inquiry (25 Mar 2009) has video

Tony Wright: .... One was Brian Jones, who was the leading defence intelligence expert at the Ministry of Defence. He said in terms that he thought Parliament had completely failed to ask the questions about Iraq that needed to be asked. He was followed by Mr. Carne Ross, a Foreign Office diplomat with experience in Iraq and in dealing with Iraq issues at the United Nations on our behalf who resigned from...

Points of Order: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (13 Oct 2008) has video

Tony Wright: ..., certainly if military means are used. He argued his case extremely powerfully, and I want to pursue it by briefly discussing two instances that have preoccupied the Commons in recent years: the Iraq adventure and Europe and the European treaty, which force us to think rather large thoughts about democracy and human rights. I dissent somewhat from the right hon. and learned Gentleman, as...

Points of Order: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (13 Oct 2008) has video

Tony Wright: ..., by the argument about its success, nor was I persuaded that it would not produce more terrorism, rather than diminish it. I was not persuaded, either, by the argument about the link between Iraq and previous terrorism. It was hard to sustain the argument, and I had doubts about the larger ideological prospectus attached to it. Having said all that, I had huge respect for those who, like...

Opposition Day — [14th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (11 Jun 2007)

Tony Wright: ...that Parliament should do. First, however, I shall return to a remark by the right hon. and learned Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind), who said that what had happened in Iraq was, in his words, predicted and predictable. I could not help but think, when I listened to him, that that was not something that the Conservative party—the official Opposition—knew...

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval) (15 May 2007)

Tony Wright: ..., of course, our interest in these matters has waned. When the PAC report appeared three years ago, neither the House nor the Government was terribly interested in what it said. In the wake of the Iraq vote, my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House was asked, in the House, whether Parliament's vote on the war had created a precedent. I do not remember his exact words, but he said...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (24 May 2006)

Tony Wright: ...Prime Minister was in Baghdad this week, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, was in this country, saying that it was now ridiculous for anyone to suggest that Iraq was not in a state of civil war. Does the Prime Minister agree, and where does that leave our promise not to leave Iraq until a stable democracy has been established?

Written Answers — Culture Media and Sport: Charitable Fund (2 May 2006)

Tony Wright: ...; (2) whether the charitable fund announced in the Budget to support British citizens affected by terrorist acts abroad will include financial help to the spouses of British soldiers killed in Iraq.

London Attacks (11 Jul 2005)

Tony Wright: As one of those who opposed the military action in Iraq, may I ask whether my right hon. Friend agrees that those who have been arguing over the past few days that what happened took place only because of that action are talking not only nonsense but dangerous nonsense? We are dealing with a group of Islamo-fascists who are against any form of democratic politics, and on that we should all be...

Orders of the Day — Inquiries Bill [Lords] (15 Mar 2005)

Dr Tony Wright: ...and make similar recommendations. In our report, the Committee compared sections of the Franks inquiry after the Falklands war with sections of Lord Butler's inquiry into weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and associated intelligence matters. There are some striking similarities in what the two inquiries have to say about intelligence failures in both contexts. Given that inquiries tend...

Orders of the Day — Inquiries Bill [Lords] (15 Mar 2005)

Dr Tony Wright: ...into commissions to investigate such issues, we would be doing it. If it had been possible for a Committee of the House to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the decision to go to war in Iraq or the death of David Kelly, we would have done it, but that proved impossible.

Iraq (20 Jul 2004)

Dr Tony Wright: ...military action. The report says that regime change would not be lawful, and noted the difficulty in achieving UN acceptance of military action. It says that the UN "would need to be convinced that Iraq was in breach of its obligations; that such proof would need to be incontrovertible and of large-scale activity; but that the intelligence then available was insufficiently robust to meet...

Iraq (20 Jul 2004)

Dr Tony Wright: ...of the military action and what its real consequences were. All we can do is say that we probably did make a serious mistake in what we did; but having done it, we have an obligation to try to make Iraq a rather better place now than it was before.

Iraq (Judicial Inquiry) (22 Oct 2003)

Dr Tony Wright: I do not want to rehearse the substantive arguments about Iraq, on which we have already heard some important and, in some respects, devastating contributions, particularly from the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), who is no longer in his place. In a sense, he undercut the Opposition motion, because his analysis told us precisely what we wanted to know about why we...

Iraq (Judicial Inquiry) (22 Oct 2003)

Dr Tony Wright: ...and the result of that is the passing of investigative power from Parliament to the judges. Either we are content with that, or we do something about it. There are major questions to be asked about Iraq, and of course there are grounds for having further reflective inquiries of the kind to which my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington, South and Finsbury referred. The Intelligence...