I reminded myself when I posted "war on terror," that twenty years ago today Robin Cook made his historic speech in the Commons opposing the horrible descent into the grossly dishonest invasion of Iraq. He was no leftie but he had the kind of principles that were totally alien to Bush and Blair. He died just two years later, and who knows how UK politics might have been different (for the better) had he lived.

There were plenty of stupid sayings flying around at the time, but, this end, the stupidest and most dishonest one was the one in which Blair said that Saddam had "active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes."