We Hardly Needed To Ask Papers If They’d Support A War, Explains Straw

The Mail was notoriously hard to convince

Speaking at the Leveson Inquiry, former home secretary Jack Straw today poured scorn on the Daily Mail’s claim that the Blair government waited until they were confident of press support in 2003 before sending British troops to the slaughter in an unwinnable, illegal six-year occupation of Iraq.

“Of course we didn’t waste any time worrying about media support,” laughed Mr Straw. “Have you ever heard an editor fretting about the loss of circulation caused by cover-to-cover photos of British troops kicking, blasting and bombing seven colours of shit out of foreign conscripts? Didn’t think so.”

Associated Newspapers’ editor-in-chief Paul Dacre, meanwhile, distinctly remembers the Mail as being the soft, still voice of calm in the run-up to the invasion, fearlessly running openly pacifist headlines like ‘Kill A Wog For Christ!’, ‘Saddam Causes Cancer’ and ‘2003’s Must-Have Accessory: A Garland Of Towelhead Guts’.