A rough ride for Tony tonight.
This is one of the fundimental differences between the US and north American society.. for here a Prime Minister can be confronted by a group of 'constituents' on national television.. where he must face an intimate confrontation with those who have no training in foreign policy or economics.. who have been educated and moulded by the media.. who's intelligence sources are no better than yours..
It's not a popular war here... We'll go if we must.. but it won't be with the public lining the streets, brass bands blowing away..
And the consensus is, that Tony did not convince the audience of the necessity of war, that his performance was less than persuasive.
Comments the likes of 'weak arguments' and 'muddying the waters'.. expectations of some evidence of a material breach of Resolution 1441 dashed.. a rather pointless but entertaining exchange between Jeremy Paxton and Tony on the semantic exactitude of the claim the inspectors had been 'expelled' from Iraq.. all have contributed to a picture we'd rather not see. That of an over-eager Tony, tying our traces beside George... for a page in history.
This will not help the markets tomorrow..