Prime Minister Blair has once again refused to apologise for the police raid and shooting of an innocent man in Forest Gate, as he addressed the MPs on the House of Commons Liaison Committee of parliamentary chairmen yesterday.
Home Affairs Committee chairman John Denham put it to him: ‘it’s difficult to avoid events like Forest Gate where police go in on what turns out to be dodgy information, but how can we sustain community confidence in providing information to the police, if people fear that kind of operation is going to take place?’
Blair said: ‘I suspect, actually, that most Muslims would recognise that Forest Gate in a sense had to happen because of the information the police had.’
He insisted that ‘the police are bound to go and take whatever action’ if they get such information.
Blair was asked about discrimination against Muslims, by Communities and Local Government Committee chairman Phyllis Starkey, particularly in relation to unemployment.
Blair answered, trying to turn the question into an attack on the Muslim community, ‘I may offend people by saying this, part of the answer also lies within the community itself’ adding: ‘Muslim leaders need to make sure that women get the opportunities to go out to work.’
When Starkey pointed out ‘you’ve avoided the issue of male unemployment in the Muslim community’ all Blair could offer was the New Deal workfare scheme.
He also showed little sympathy for Polish migrant workers when Transport Committee Chairman Gwynneth Dunwoody pointed out: ‘They have no support from the social services system, they have to provide their own housing, they are brought in by agencies who charge them for accommodation and transport and anything else they can think of, leaving them with hardly any money at all.’
Blair, speaking out for the bosses, said ‘a lot of migration has been beneficial to our economies’, and that ‘there’s a limit to what you can do’.
Michael Gapes, Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, asked: ‘How long do you expect British troops to be in Iraq.’
Blair replied: ‘As long as the government there wishes us to be there.
‘But I suspect that, over the next 18 months, there will obviously be opportunities to draw down the significant numbers of British troops because the capacity of the Iraqi forces will build up.’
International Development Committee chairman Martin Bruce asked if the present deployment of 3,300, expected to rise to 5,700 ‘is enough troops to do the job’ in Afghanistan.
Blair said: ‘Anything they need I will make sure they get.’ Asked about the situation in Gaza, Blair insisted that ‘Israel has to protect its security’.
