back to article Chilcot's IT spend: Tighter wallet than most public sector bods

Sir John Chilcot, who today delivered his much-awaited report into the Iraq war, ran an impressively tight ship when it came to IT spending. The IT and telecommunications spending for Chilcot’s six-volume, 2.6 million word report, which is published today, amounted to £695,300 over the Iraq Inquiry’s seven years of work, which …

  1. g e

    Or....

    He did as he was told by the USA like a good little PM

    1. Baldy50

      Re: Or....

      'like a good little PM' lapdog!

  2. astrax

    179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

    "I'm sorry." - Blair.

    What a frickin' disgrace.

    1. g e
      Pint

      Upvote +100

      Have beer, too.

    2. genghis_uk
      Flame

      Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

      Not to mention the destruction of lives and infrastructure plus providing an open path for the likes of ISIS in Iraq.

      How does he get away with it?

      1. Hollerithevo

        Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

        179 British lives.

        Tens of thousands of Iraqi lives lost, families destroyed, people maimed, brutalised, radicalised, oppressed, made refugees. Iraqi businesses ruined, infrastructure destroyed, resources squandered. Corruption encouraged, distrust and hatred sown. Contempt for the western powers deepened, destabilisation of the world increased.

        As far as I can see, the only hoped for 'result' was the death of Saddam. Everything else is a shambles.

        1. Ashley_Pomeroy

          Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

          "As far as I can see, the only hoped for 'result' was the death of Saddam. Everything else is a shambles."

          One aspect was a terrific success, at least for a short while. Vol 9, section 10.3 is an interesting read. Paraphrasing the preamble, we had four objectives - WMD, a stable government, regional peace, the end of terrorism, but in addition...

          "The UK also had a number of “second order” objectives, including ensuring that British companies benefitted from any post-war reconstruction contracts. Sir Christopher Meyer, British Ambassador to the US, responded to the paper by questioning whether it was right to classify securing reconstruction contracts as a second order objective. ... UK interests were not something to press immediately, but should be a “top priority” in post-Saddam contingency planning."

          "Sir Christopher concluded [that] “We will need to register with the Americans that, in the event of war, the UK will expect to get a generous share of reconstruction and oil contracts after Saddam’s defeat. This did not/not happen in Kuwait after the Gulf War.""

          A year later...

          "Mr Fergus Harradence, Head of the UKTI’s Gulf Unit, provided an update ... on UK commercial success in Iraq. Mr Harradence advised that there were over 60 UK companies working in Iraq, involved in contracts which UKTI estimated were worth a total of US$2.6bn. That figure did not represent the total value of work undertaken and goods supplied by UK companies, but rather the total value of the contracts on which UK companies worked as contractors or subcontractors.

          UK companies had been successful in winning contracts from all the major contracting organisations (the US, the CPA and Iraqi Ministries, the UN and DFID), although UK companies had been particularly successful in winning work as contractors or subcontractors to US Government agencies."

          So in that respect a lot of people did very well out of the invasion. Although given the subsequent banking crisis and economic collapse, it looks as if they squandered even that.

    3. wolfetone Silver badge

      Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

      Peston called him out on that. He hasn't said sorry. Not really.

      He's "sorry" for the "mistakes" he made in planning. He isn't sorry for going to war, for picking and choosing what bits of evidence, isn't sorry for effectively writing a blank cheque of "Yes America we're with you 100%".

      And even if he was sorry, why has he let this drag on for 7 years and cost the tax payer £30 million?

      The man is, has always been, a fraud. A monster. And I hope to God he gets whats coming to him.

      He also emphasises how much of a loss Charles Kennedy and Robin Cook are to politics in the UK. They both called him out on his lies. And David Kelly for being thrown under a bus by the government.

      RIP to those who lost their lives over this, to those who died wanting the truth to come out. Thoughts have always been with the families of the young men he sent out to die for a nothing war. Thoughts are always for the people our democracy has destroyed. All for a lie.

    4. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

      £30million was the cost of the report. The direct financial cost to the UK was a bit bigger.

      1. Triggerfish

        Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

        "the report makes clear there were no lies and parliament and cabinet were not misled".

        Tony Blairs words, I must have missed it when did we find the WMD's then?

        Also interesting the Chilcott report never actually questioned Admiral Lord West. who was first sea lord at the time, a job I feel might have had some tasks or something related to whole war thing.

        Even more interesting how he seems to be implying the war was a given.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

        " The direct financial cost to the UK was a bit bigger."

        Since the refugee crisis is largely the result of the invasion of Iraq and is ongoing, and since the referendum result was due to the Leave campaign focussing on immigration, while UKIP attacked refugees, you could say that Blair is responsible for the current financial crisis, which continues.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

          since the referendum result was due to the Leave campaign focussing on immigration, ......., you could say that Blair is responsible for the current financial crisis, which continues.

          No and yes, respectively. The current financial "crisis" is simply an overdue reset of the sterling exchange rate, and Brexit is simply a trigger rather than any cause. If anything, pre-Brexit, our EU membership unjustifiably propped up the fraud of $1.50 exchange rate despite no supporting logic to that. So Iraq 2003 has no real bearing on Brexit or current financial events.

          However, you're right that Blair is responsible for where we are, by virtue of Gordon Brown's vast expansion of unfunded public spending (and future commitments), lax monetary policy and flagrant disregard for prudent financial sector regulation. The subsequent clowns have merely been inept in reforming the mess on at least the first two of those. We'll find out about the third when the next shoe drops - be that a real run on sterling, southern Europe's debt crisis going critical, Japan's government going bust, a hard landing in China, a repeat of the 2008 solvency crisis, or even a US-led economic depression. All have modest likelihood of materialsiing on their own, the chances of at least one occurring is quite high. And that's without the geopolitics where risks include the Nork's provoking a war in Korea, the chance of revolution in Saudi, the Israeli's going to war with anyone, economic collapse of Mexico, Brazil or Venezuela, or Erdogan going rogue in Turkey.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 179 lives, 7 years, £30 million, culminates in...wait for it...

      You forgot the Kosovo Bombings.

      You need to ask a Bulgarian or Romanian how many people does he know who died of cancer 2001-2003 and how many who died before and after. Being downwind from a freshly bombed lead factory, which has been spiced up by a burning electronics factory, decorated with fumes from a burning chemical factory and topped up with smoke from a munitions dump is a fantastic way to improve your health you know.

      We all know who was the most rabid advocate for that affair. Same as with Iraq - no consideration for the possible consequences whatsoever and no mitigation plan.

  3. Bloodbeastterror

    Blair is a disgusting failure of a human being. I take his "sorry" not at face value but as I suspect as he intends it - as a too-late faked attempt to show that he has some humanity.

    Not a chance, Tony - we all have your number now...

    How do you sleep at night with the blood of so many thousands on your hands?

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "How do you sleep at night with the blood of so many thousands on your hands?"

      He converted officially to Catholicism after he left office. There's probably a priest out there somewhere who knows more than anyone else about this. Blair probably said a few Hail Marys and now all is good with his conscience.

      1. Bloodbeastterror

        "all is good with his conscience."

        His what...?

  4. Wommit

    I wonder if

    "Lessons are going to be learnt."

    1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: I wonder if

      There is a real danger that lessons have already been learnt.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: I wonder if

      Sadly, Blair already said that.

  5. JimC

    It would be nice to think that an inadequate IT spend was the reason the enquiry took so long and cost so much.

    I fear I doubt that though.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Chilcott ... spent 38 per cent less than the public sector usually does"

      Or could it be that an inquiry like this is particularly heavy on lawyers bills, thus depressing the relative proportion spent on IT?

  6. Dr Scrum Master

    With the publication of the report Private Eye will have to look for a new joke.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      >With the publication of the report Private Eye will have to look for a new joke.

      I'm holding the latest issue in my hand, fresh through the letterbox today: it would seem the Conservative and Labour parties are doing the best to keep the Eye supplied with material.

      Cartoon: A man reading two headlines, Brexit Chaos, and Chilcot Published: "The whole thing was based on deliberate inaccuracies with no thought whatsoever for the aftermath"

      Also, a Lookalike Special: Emperor Palpatine / Theresa May, Penfold / Micheal Gove, Angela Eagle / Brienne of Tarth

    2. paulf
      Coat

      I think there is still mileage in it, for example: "Remain supporters will be hoping the newly available Sir John Chilcot will be asked by the Government to organise invoking Article 50 after the recent EU referendum".

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder,

    How much of Iraq's oil did we get access to or profit from?

    If we did profit how much would we have lost if we didn't go to war?

    Who profited from the war anyway because someone must have taken control of those oil fields when the government was removed?

    Those are the questions I would like answered because to be honest we know Blair is a war criminal anyway.

    1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton.

    2. Known Hero
      Unhappy

      Who Said its about profit ?

      People get murdered for cutting somebody else up on a road, even if by mistake.

      This war could be quite simply a pissing contest :(

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Needs saying!

    Blair's the evil sort who would impose Windows 10 on innocent civilians!

  9. Steve 114
    Pirate

    When turret guns came, the RN was changed. When barbed wire came, the Army changed, when 'terror-bombing' came, the RAF changed. Now we have religionist suicide-bombers, the Army must change again. Also the RN, which needs Channel motor boats, not giant submarines.

    1. Edward Ashford

      Like Archer and River class you mean?

  10. Mutton Jeff

    Jaysus £30.8 million

    At a little under £12 a word, no wonder they wrote so much

    1. Sgt_Oddball

      Re: Jaysus £30.8 million

      Isn't that about how a solicitor normally costs?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Jaysus £30.8 million

        Isn't that about how a solicitor normally costs?

        Well, technically Blair is a barrister, not a solicitor.

        He's also a warmongering arsehole, with the blood of thousands on his hands. And to the £30.8m, you need to add the costs of UK military involvement (about £10bn), plus Blair's share of the cost of rebuilding Iraq and now Syria - something of the order of a trillion quid, perhaps 80/20 split between Bush and Blair.

        Could somebody do up a nice invoice to the evil charlatan, in the sum of £810,030,800,000.00, and send it him here:

        http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/

        And don't forget to post a copy on social media.

  11. FlamingDeath Silver badge

    Hansel and Gretel

    If you're wondering how we got here, to this travesty of a whitewash report I wouldn't dare wipe my arse with, there is a trail of breadcrumbs to lead you to source, and it starts with the question, "Is this real World, or excersise?"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKRVmsTk-Mw

  12. Alistair
    Windows

    Canadians - one reason to thank Jean Chretien

    He said hell no we wont go.

    We ended up in the soup *after* the fact.

    1. PhilipN Silver badge

      Re: Canadians - one reason to thank Jean Chretien

      Not forgetting Germany and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer who told Donald Rumsfeld to his face, in public, that he was "not convinced" about Iraq's phantom WMD.

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        Re: Canadians - one reason to thank Jean Chretien

        And Jacques Chirac who refused point blank to back the invasion.

        He also helped rename "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" in America because of that.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Canadians - one reason to thank Jean Chretien

          He also helped rename "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" in America because of that.

          What's the French for "burger munching war monkeys"?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Blair overestimated his ability"

    Period.

    No need for a qualifier.

    Another candidate for the Fletcher Memorial Home.

  14. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face
    Mushroom

    £30,854,800

    .. to tell us what everyone already knew.

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