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EDITIONS
Wednesday, 12 February, 2003, 12:49 GMT
Prime Minister's Questions
BBC News Online's Nick Assinder gives his instant view on the winners and losers during Tony Blair's weekly grilling in the House of Commons.

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"I hope when people go on that march that they at least recognise that those of us that take a different view hold our views with as much conviction and sincerity as they hold theirs."

Tony Blair's message to Stop the War protesters ahead of this weekend's march in London.

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Charles Kennedy continued to put the anti-war questions: This time asking the prime minister directly whether he would agree to any request from UN weapons inspectors for more time to continue their work.

Mr Blair's vow to take "full account" of any such request will not have set Mr Kennedy's mind at rest.

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Tory MP Angela Browning asked who was responsible for the plagiarised parts of the government's dossier on Iraq. Whoever it was, the prime minister wasn't saying.
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Well Tony Blair might be ready to show the card to Barry Gardiner who asked about rising gun crime in London... minutes after Mr Blair had vigorously defended the government's record on street crime in the face of an attack from Iain Duncan Smith.

You could almost hear the prime minister sighing with exasperation.

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Speaker Michael Martin took his eye off the ball when he called Lindsay Hoyle to ask his question, just after his question had been answered, and as Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith prepared to fire his opening salvo.
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Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith asked whether the recent splits in Nato had led to the prime minister rethinking his support for a common European defence policy.

He later attacked Tony Blair's policies on asylum.

Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy asked whether the prime minister would agree to any request from Dr Hans Blix for more time to be given to UN weapons inspectors in Iraq.

Other subjects raised included anti-war viewpoints; allowances for military personnel; gun crime; security alert at Heathrow; London Underground safety; the plagiarised dossier; Council Tax increases and pensioners.

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So now Tony Blair is going to war to help starving babies - and it is all about morality.

The prime minister faced the predictable barrage of attacks on his policy towards Iraq - most of it from his own backbenches.

He knows he has to pull out all the stops if, at this very late stage, he is to win over opinion behind war.

Linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda, lifting "dodgy dossiers" off the internet and insisting Iraq has weapons of mass destruction have all failed.

So today - amid claims Britain is facing a specific terrorist threat as big as 11 September (an issue which was bizarrely left un-explored) - he switched ground.

And it was the moral high ground he was moving on to. He confessed his sanctions policy was a disaster, thanks to Saddam, and left mass poverty and starving children in Iraq.

And he used the words morals and morality at least half a dozen times.

This was the prime minister no longer arguing the toss over details of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism.

It was the prime minister laying out a moral and emotional case. There will be more to come in the next few days.

Meanwhile, Iain Duncan Smith did it again - he must have a new script writer.

He savaged the prime minister for making up policy on the hoof every time he went into a TV studio.

And he laid into him over his pledge to cut asylum numbers in half by September.

But far from retreating, the prime minister actually strengthened his commitment. This is now a firm pledge and he has invited us all to judge him on the results in the autumn.

He is clearly supremely confident that his current policies will work - or he has something up his sleeve.


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