Enemy of my enemy

iers Morgan published 'The Insider' last year, describing his editorship of national newspapers over ten years. In it, he acknowledges that he is a name-dropper and sometimes a prat, but he inadvertently reveals himself to be a prat most of the time, especially when he thinks he's being amusing or clever. Still, his complete failure to understand why he fared particularly badly on 'Have I Got News for You' makes him seem slightly less arrogant.

The most interesting thing about his book was the changing relationship between the Mirror newspaper and the Government over recent years. Although the Mirror was a strong supporter of New Labour before they came to power in 1997, the mutual regard collapsed over the Iraq war.

According to Piers, Alastair Campbell and Cherie Blair didn't help matters, but it was Tony Blair's failure to understand why people might not trust him or have a different point of view over a war that was illegal and not sanctioned by UN resolution. The original (public) justification - to remove the possibility of Saddam Hussain using weapons of mass destruction - was shown to be unfounded so a new justification had to be found quickly - removal of a tyrant. There was little armed resistance to the invasion, which was used by the British government as further 'evidence' that the disapproval of the war was wrong.

The book ends, as it starts, with Piers Morgan's dismissal as editor of the Mirror for publishing faked photographs of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. There is a sugestion that Piers is starting to support the Blairs once more, which seems odd given the recent policies and actions of the Prime Minister.

I'll never like Piers Morgan - he's out of his depth among talented and/or charismatic people and hasn't the wit to see why he shouldn't attempt to keep up with them. I respect him, however, for his stance against the war. I grew up in the 1960's when the Second World War and its aftermath were thankfully long over, but still recent enough to be a horrible memory for many people. Yes, there was the appalling prospect of nuclear warfare, but otherwise it was a time of growth and optimism. It seemed highly unlikely that Britain would ever enter another 'traditional' war, and unthinkable that we would invade somewhere just because we decided to.