Review of Claire Short’s lecture at the Frontline Club

February 14th, 2007

Claire Short is the previous Labour minister for international development who quit the government in 2003 over the Iraq war scandal in the UK. She gave a sort of interview/informal talk at the Frontline Club (www.frontlineclub.com) on Valentines evening of all dates. It all sounded very interesting and so I poppoed up to Paddington this evening to see how Claire comes across. The whole thing was taped so when they get around to putting up a link I’ll point you in the right direction.
The event was surprisingly well attended with between 40 and 50 people in the audience. It’s a nice cosy venue with a very intimate feel. Starting only a few minutes late, Claire answered some background on why she quit, her feelings on the war and Afghanistan and various topical internation events. She’s very impressive and able to easily come up with anecdotes and entertaining stories on the fly though obviously these topics are well covered ground for her. After about 45 minutes the floor was opened to questions.
Claire is pretty scathing about Tony Blair and sniped at him throughout the evening, painting him as all spin and media and no substance. In her own words she had a great plan for the middle east and Tony flubbed the whole thing. She holds little hope for Gordon Brown to improve anything though there is a scenario in which he could elegantly back us out of Iraq and patch something up.
The questions were for more interesting. It quickly became obvious that this audience was composed primarily of journalists and political activists. The questions were good if slightly generic. The first controversy of the evening was from a Congolese journalist who attacked Claire for what he perceived as the failing of the UKs interventions in the region and support of Rwanda. He was pretty vocal. Unfortunately, Claires response was good but contained a few ad hominem attacks that kind of diminished it. Later an american women asked if Claire “was for the evisceration of Israel”. The very left leaning audience tuttered and muttered and after a reasonably cuttinng remark from Claire laughed out loud. This topic was a slam dunk – execpt for the person asking the question no-one in the room supported Israels actions but Claire still threw in a few personal remarks about the women. For someone who criticises Tony Blair for being all about the media and soundbites she certainly knows, and doesn’t hesitate to use, the same tricks.
That said, and while I disagreed with about a third of her statements, she’s incredibly smart and well informed. I imagine debating her one on one would be incredibly stimulating (and I’d probably loose). The Frontline was a great venue and even though you have to cough up £7 for the priviledge it’s something I’d recommend to anyone interested in politics.

Entry Filed under: Politics