Sketchup: Clare Short at the Iraq inquiry
A selection of lines from parliamentary sketch-writers.
Clare Short, the former international development secretary who resigned in protest at the Iraq war two months after the invasion in 2003, appeared in front of the Chilcot inquiry.
The Daily Mail's Quentin Letts says that the ex-cabinet minister gave a very different performance to those who'd gone before her:
"Unlike so many of the other cautious Clives who have appeared before the Iraq Inquiry, biting on their clever tongues, playing the see-nothing-hear-nothing game, Clare Short exploded. Frequently. Like a French moped backfiring on some B road in the Dordogne as its owner weaves home after a night on the pastis."
Simon Hoggart in the Guardian found Ms Short's tone throughout the day rather disconcerting:
"It was like watching a highly respected international statesperson whose brain was being taken over by Little Britain's Vicky Pollard. Answers tumbled out at endless length."
The Independent's Simon Carr says that were no surprises in what Ms Short told the committee.
Elsewhere in Westminster, Ann Treneman from the Times was watching Gordon Brown before the Commons liaison committee. She notices that he seems to be more cheerful than ever before:
"As I watched him - fluent, relaxed, in control - I wrote down: 'He loves being Prime Minister. And he looks like one.'"
"It is unnerving how buoyant he seems."
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