GETTY Tony Balir lied to Parliament when he said he had seen evidence that Saddam had launchable WMDs

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In 1956 Anthony Eden committed our Armed Forces to invade the Suez Canal zone of Egypt. It was a disaster. The resistance on the ground was pathetic and our paras stormed to victory from Suez town to Port Said. Then the political skies fell in. US president Dwight Eisenhower, unconsulted and outraged, threatened to use the power of the dollar to break the pound sterling. We withdrew and handed the canal back to Gamal Abdel Nasser who had nationalised it as a native Egyptian asset. Then the revelations came. The invasion had stemmed from a secret British-French-Israeli pact worked out behind closed doors in Paris. Eden resigned in disgrace. It was whispered in the corridors that Eden had been so ill he was possibly mentally unbalanced. Macmillan took over and even mention of Suez became taboo as Eden sailed off on extended "holiday". In 1976 Harold Wilson suddenly and unexpectedly resigned after winning his fourth election in 1974, leaving amiable but hapless Jim Callaghan to take over.

What "Sunny Jim" was actually bequeathed, it soon became clear, was an economic basket case. Wilson, then Heath, then Wilson again had run our country into the ground. We were the sick man of Europe. It took 10 years of struggle under Margaret Thatcher even to begin to recover. But surely there can never have been a discreditation to match that which has overtaken Tony Blair as revelation follows revelation that this seeming charmer who won three consecutive elections just lied and lied and lied. I suppose we are accustomed to mendacious politicians by now but the price of these lies is usually huge losses of money due to incompetence. The revelations, long suspected, never quite proved, that Blair sent 179 fine young people to die in Iraq on the basis of a tissue of lies, including untruths told to Parliament at the Despatch Box, are of a different order.

GETTY John Chilcot still refuses to release his inquiry

We no longer have impeachment in this country but lying to the House is lying on oath, meaning perjury, and that requires instant resignation and disgrace. It is now, following fresh revelations from the scrupulously honest Colin Powell, American secretary of state at the time, perfectly clear that Blair had committed the UK to war in Iraq 11 months before he addressed the House of Commons and conned that body into supporting him by pretending to ask its permission. His pledge that he had seen incontrovertible evidence that Saddam Hussein had launchable weapons of mass destruction when he had nothing of the sort was also a lie. Since then he has become a multimillionaire on the basis of contracts to advise central Asian rogues as dodgy as himself. Yet still he is given space in TV studios and fat cheques for lectures. Still Sir John Chilcot refuses to reveal the result of his inquiry into how we really got into that stupid and pointless war. And we really think we live in an honest country? I think I'd prefer to believe in the Tooth Fairy than the word of the present establishment.

Labour EU fanatic who predicted we'd be better off out IT MIGHT seem odd for a Conservative voter and EU-sceptic like myself to have regard for the advice of the late Sir Roy Jenkins. But I do - at least for one thing he said. He was a lifelong luminary of the Labour Party and tried but failed to become party leader. He was on the Right of the party (probably why he failed to win) and a fanatical devotee of the EU. Indeed he was the only Briton who served as president of the EU Commission in Brussels, a scholar, intellectual and dedicated luvvie.

GETTY Roy Jenkins concluded that Britain's worst option is to be half in and half out of Europe

So what did he say that I agree with? While passionate that this country should consign itself for ever into the heart of the Republic of Europe he added that our worst possible position was half in, half out. To be constantly on the periphery, constantly complaining, constantly losing out. To be always pretending to have influence while being always overridden, to be forever irritating all the others and gaining nothing by it. That was the worst possible posture. It would be better, he said, for us to leave and be done with it than to limp on, half in and half out - and in this I think he was right. Today we see David Cameron embraced in Europe's capitals. But that is only because of our economic strength. If we were the economic cripple of 1979 our premier would not even get a handshake, let alone an embrace. But behind the smiles Roy Jenkins is still right. Our complaints still annoy all the rest to distraction. Without abolition of the pound, without signing up to Schengen, we will always remain half in, half out. As Jenkins the EU-zealot would say: in that case better off out.

GETTY The Bill will stamp out investigative journalism

Blatant attempt to stamp on fearless press THERE'S a Bill inching its way through Parliament that bids fair to put an end to investigative journalism. It derives from the disastrous inquiry into media sins by Lord Leveson and the capitulation of Oliver Letwin to Labour and the Hacked Off group. Yes, the newspapers sometimes go too far and commit offences. But a legal offence should be dealt with by the police - that's what they are there for. The new Act looks like the revenge of a degenerate establishment that loathes being investigated by the media because it has become so sleazy. Would you ever have heard of MPs fiddling their expenses; civil servants incompetently frittering billions of your money; bankers fiddling the Libor rate or foreign currency rates; pensions sellers cheating pensioners; tycoons whacking on inflated prices - any of this without an investigative press? We may occasionally go wrong but we get vastly more right. The new Act intends to ensure that no editor will dare publish an exposé for fear of humongous fines big enough to ruin his proprietor. Thank you Lord Leveson for helping abolish 300 years of free and pretty fearless press - something every dictator really loathes.

GETTY For the first time ever there is no northern hemisphere team in the last four of a Rugby World Cup

No Europeans can tackle the rugby gaints ANY English rugby fan wondering why his team is no longer in the World Cup should replay the tape of the All Blacks' utter destruction of France last Saturday. The fact is that south of the equator they play a different and better game. What the New Zealanders put on was a master class in fast, open, long-passing, edge-ofseat rugby football with brilliant, split-second passing just before the tackle, running rings around the French, cutting their defences wide open and scoring nine tries. I have no hesitation in predicting that the final will be between the All Blacks and one of the other two giants from the southern hemisphere. Then next spring we will have the Six Nations Tournament of Europeans constantly running six feet into the nearest tackle, then grubbing around in the grass for the missing ball. Then fruitlessly giving away possession with pointless punts down-field before starting again. At the moment no European team can take on the giants from south of the Equator.

GETTY Charlotte Hawkins spent a week in Malawi