Kick in the Pants 2016 winner

Tony Blair

Sir John Chilcot finally delivered his long-awaited Iraq Inquiry earlier this year. It confirmed what had long been suspected: that then PM Tony Blair’s ‘certainty’ about Iraq’s capabilities was ‘not justified’.

We’ve all become accustomed to spin and the selective use of information in politics. But on a matter as important as this one – whether we as a nation decide to get involved in a war – there’s no room for anything but hard facts.

Sir John Chilcot’s report offers a restrained, if definitive, verdict on what happened. Blair took ‘full responsibility’ for his actions. The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn apologised on behalf of his party, and Blair was rightly criticised in the press.

But we think that Tony Blair warrants something a little bit more emphatic. And we’re happy to oblige with our Kick in the Pants award.