Interesting......

I don't know any of the parties involoved, but I suppose there is something a little bit sad about assembling a wadge of 'facts' to win an argument on Mudcat.

I do know that facts are sometimes very misleading. the Tories for example spent a hell of lot money on education. From experience however I know that most of the money was spent on crude social experimentation like the so-called national curriculum.

I was a supply teacher at the time and I saw the inside a lot of schools, and the important stuff like text books and repairs on school fabric all went to hell. I think most the money must have landed up in the pockets of middle class publishers who were publishing all these national curriculum directives and documents which arrived every day in the post. One English department had a entire room filled chest high with all this unread and largely unreadable crap.

I gather it was the same story in the health service where GPs where being induced to become fund holders against their better judgement.

You've got to try and assess the characters behind the statistics and their intentions.

Whatever you feel about Bush and Blair, I think surely their intentions towards Iraq are more benign than Saddam Hussein. Whether it was worth all the carnage - I think we have to just hope for the best.