Basra Is A Happier Place Today

A week before the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the Minister for War and the Colonies Including Scotland has gone to Basra on what his spokesbeings called a "general visit". Perhaps he's gone to see for himself how well the Government's programme to help Iraqi staff is going. Perhaps he's delivering better equipment, since a close friend of Prince William has been killed. Perhaps he's gone to share a good snigger over the planned use of the Conflict Prevention Fund to outsource RAF work to a private arms company. I doubt it, though. Given that the main required qualification for New New Labour ministers appears to be a form of contact with reality which might charitably be described as something less than intimate, he probably means to give the lads a bit of inspiration.