First Drafts - The Prospect magazine blog

2 Responses

1. Dan Hardie says:

   August 10, 2007 at 4:22 am

   Tom, thank you very much for the kind words, but it is far too early to talk about ‘triumph’, whether partial or otherwise. The campaign has never been about just the 91 particular cases highlighted in the Times report. As a great many British soldiers have been saying privately, and as TA Major Andrew Alderson, or journalists like Marie Colvin and Phil Sands, have been saying publicly, there are an uncounted number of other Iraqis who worked for the British and are now in hiding from local death squads.

   We can’t declare that the blog campaign has even partially succeeded when we haven’t, as yet, had a single firm committment from the Government to take one of these people. It’s going to be necessary to wait and see how many Iraqis the Government does take- and to ask soldiers and journalists in Iraq and neighbouring countries if at-risk personnel are still being abandoned- before declaring a success.

   It would be very helpful indeed if you, and your readers, would write to your MP on this matter and post his or her reply on your blog. (My apologies if you have done so already). There are talking points for such a letter here:
   Tom, thank you very much for the kind words, but it is far too early to talk about ‘triumph’, whether partial or otherwise. The campaign has never been about just the 91 particular cases highlighted in the Times report. As a great many British soldiers have been saying privately, and as TA Major Andrew Alderson, or journalists like Marie Colvin and Phil Sands, have been saying publicly, there are an uncounted number of other Iraqis who worked for the British and are now in hiding from local death squads.

   We can’t declare that the blog campaign has even partially succeeded when we haven’t, as yet, had a single firm committment from the Government to take one of these people. It’s going to be necessary to wait and see how many Iraqis the Government does take- and to ask soldiers and journalists in Iraq and neighbouring countries if at-risk personnel are still being abandoned- before declaring a success.

   It would be very helpful indeed if you, and your readers, would write to your MP on this matter and post his or her reply on your blog. (My apologies if you have done so already). There are talking points for such a letter here:

   http://danhardie.wordpress.com/2007/07/22/we-cant-turn-them-away
2. Dan Hardie says:

   August 10, 2007 at 8:53 am

   Apologies for double-posting a couple of paragraphs- very clever. Letters to MPs are very necessary: we don’t want the Government thinking that it can just give asylum to a few high-profile cases, whilst the other ‘Local Employees of the Coalition’ are quietly disposed of by Sadrist death squads.