The main “finding” from the first day of the long-awaited Iraq inquiry appears to be that the Bush administration were discussing toppling Saddam Hussein as late early as 2001. This will come as no surprise to most people who followed developments in Washington through that period.
But it does give me an excuse to dredge up my favourite nugget from The 9/11 Commission report. Read more
Coming up on Wednesday: More freedom for the Scots – or not?
To the cynics, the Calman Commission was always an attempt by Labour to show that it was taking seriously the desire within Scotland for independence/ greater freedom. But will ministers do anything with the Calman report, published nearly a year ago? Read more
Sorry – forgot to tell you about the £61bn loan to RBS & HBOS
An astonishing tale emerged this morning as Bank of England executives faced the Treasury select committee.
It transpired that the BoE extended secret emergency financing to RBS and what was then HBOS during the banking panic in October 2008, indicating the two banks were even closer to collapse than had been thought. Read more
Lord Mandelson sends out more signals on the EU
A fascinating opinion piece on Europe by Lord Mandelson in this morning’s FT. It should be read through the prism of the business secretary’s supposedly frustrated attempts to become either a] UK foreign secretary or b] Europe’s high representative for foreign affairs.
The paragraphs that jump out are: Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Jim Pickard is the FT's chief political correspondent, having joined the lobby team in January 2008. He has been at the FT since 1999 as a regional correspondent, assistant UK news editor and property correspondent.
Kiran Stacey is an FT political correspondent, having joined the lobby in 2011. He started at the FT as a graduate trainee in 2008, working on desks including UK companies and US equity markets before taking over the FT's Energy Source blog.
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