Calling the shots

The Manchester Evening News has a report of a Labour fringe meeting where Charles Clarke accused the media of focusing on confrontation while fellow MP Denis McShane (a former journalist) accused them of "constant untruths and four-star porkies" about the European Community.

Andrew Gilligan, with the Iraq dossier in mind, said:

"Journalists have laptops and expense accounts. Governments have the Army, the Navy, the Air Force - that's who is calling the shots."

In a literal sense, he's right. Blair didn't actually convince the country of the threat from Iraq but Blair went to war anyway.