'This is just the beginning,' peace activists warn Tony Blair on Chilcot report

The Chilcot report was a long time coming but anyone who hoped this was the end will be bitterly disappointed. For the protestors at Westminster, the damning verdict, reached after so many years, is just the beginning. 

Waving placards such as "Out damned spot" and "Bliar", activists who have fought their corner year after year, often in the face of ridicule and contempt from the mainstream, continued their protests at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre.

They seemed at times to be outnumbered by the police and media presence, their chants drowned out by the incongruously joyful ringing out of the bells of Westminster Abbey. 

Gordon, from the Methodist Peace Fellowship, said: "God does not see war as the way of solving problems. We take the Christian point of view, the Christian pacifist point of view. I'm not sure there has ever been a just war and I certainly don't think that war has ever solved any problems. It's just created more."

Angie, ordained a deacon on Sunday, said: "I really want truth, whatever that may be, and justice for people who have not had justice, whether that is Iraqi families or military families. We should never have gone to war. We don't know enough about the Middle East. Just go back in the Bible, it goes back over thousands of years, the problems in the Middle East, and we as westerners are not going to solve those problems." 

" data-caption="null" data-credit="null">

Stop the War activist Jan Woolf, who was working as a teacher during the war, and who organised a series of anti-war plays at the Royal Court in 2013, said the conflict caused terrible distress among her colleagues and pupils and that had been replicated nationwide. "As someone who is part of the peace movement as well as work collectives, this is important and to be welcomed. This is just the beginning of the process."

The anti-war poet John, who served in the Army in Northern Ireland, said: "I'm here to try to pursue justice for Tony Blair, to ensure that he answers for the crimes that he has committed over many years, the millions of lives he has altered."

related articles
Did Blair\'s faith lead to his decision to invade Iraq? God alone knows
Did Blair's faith lead to his decision to invade Iraq? God alone knows

Did Blair's faith lead to his decision to invade Iraq? God alone knows

Tony Blair and Iraq: The world is better off without Saddam Hussein
Tony Blair and Iraq: The world is better off without Saddam Hussein

Tony Blair and Iraq: The world is better off without Saddam Hussein

Answers at last? Chilcot Report to be published today
Answers at last? Chilcot Report to be published today

Answers at last? Chilcot Report to be published today

Chilcot: Tony Blair must accept that Iraq was a calamity of his making
Chilcot: Tony Blair must accept that Iraq was a calamity of his making

Chilcot: Tony Blair must accept that Iraq was a calamity of his making

Chilcot: Iraq invasion agreed before peaceful options exhausted
Chilcot: Iraq invasion agreed before peaceful options exhausted

Chilcot: Iraq invasion agreed before peaceful options exhausted

News
Disabled baby euthanized in the Netherlands
Disabled baby euthanized in the Netherlands

Doctors in the Netherlands euthanized a severely disabled one-year-old child, the first case reported by Dutch authorities under rules introduced in 2024 that allow ending the lives of seriously ill children between the ages of one and 12.

400% increase in euthanasia deaths in Australian state of Victoria
400% increase in euthanasia deaths in Australian state of Victoria

Right To Life UK said the surge in numbers showed why UK MPs were right to reject assisted suicide.

Ukrainian churches appeal for aid in starving Oleshky
Ukrainian churches appeal for aid in starving Oleshky

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the crisis in Oleshky.

Westminster Abbey plans memorial to JRR Tolkien
Westminster Abbey plans memorial to JRR Tolkien

The memorial will go next to that of his friend CS Lewis.