- published: 06 Jul 2016
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The Iraq Inquiry, also referred to as the Chilcot Inquiry after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot, is a British public inquiry into the nation's role in the Iraq War. The inquiry was announced on 15 June 2009 by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with an initial announcement that proceedings would take place in private, a decision which was subsequently reversed after receiving criticism in the media and the House of Commons.
The Inquiry was pursued by a committee of Privy Counsellors with broad terms of reference to consider Britain's involvement in Iraq between mid-2001 and July 2009. It covered the run-up to the conflict, the subsequent military action and its aftermath with the purpose to establish the way decisions were made, to determine what happened and to identify lessons to ensure that in a similar situation in future, the British government is equipped to respond in the most effective manner in the best interests of the country. The open sessions of the inquiry commenced on 24 November 2009 and concluded on 2 February 2011.
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British Labour Party politician, who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. He now runs a consultancy business and performs charitable work. Blair was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. Blair led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, winning 418 seats, the most the party has ever held. The party went on to win two more elections under his leadership: in 2001, in which it won another landslide victory, and in 2005, with a reduced majority.
Blair was elected Labour Party leader in the leadership election of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under Blair's leadership, the party used the phrase "New Labour" to distance it from previous Labour policies and its opposition to the traditional conception of socialism. Blair declared support for a new conception that he referred to as "social-ism", involving politics that recognised individuals as socially interdependent, and advocated social justice, cohesion, equal worth of each citizen, and equal opportunity. Critics of Blair denounced him for having the Labour Party abandon genuine socialism and accepting capitalism. Supporters, including the party's public opinion pollster Philip Gould, stated that after four consecutive general election defeats, Labour had to demonstrate that it had made a decisive break from its left-wing past, in order to win again.
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno,RDI (/ˈiːnoʊ/; born 15 May 1948 and originally christened Brian Peter George Eno), professionally known as Brian Eno or simply Eno, is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music. Born in Suffolk, Eno studied under Roy Ascott at Ipswich Civic College and later attended Colchester Institute art school in Essex, England, taking inspiration from minimalist painting, cybernetics, and experimental music techniques during his time there. He joined the band Roxy Music as synthesiser player in the early 1970s. The group's success in the glam rock scene came quickly, but Eno soon became tired of touring and of conflicts with lead singer Bryan Ferry, leaving the group in 1973 to record innovative solo albums that would explore various styles and help pioneer ambient music.
Throughout the 1970s, Eno also worked as an influential collaborator and music producer, collaborating with Robert Fripp on the LPs (No Pussyfooting) (1973) and Evening Star (1975), David Bowie on his acclaimed "Berlin Trilogy," avant-garde musicians Jon Hassell and Harold Budd on several respective projects, and David Byrne on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (released 1981), and further producing the acclaimed "No Wave" compilation No New York (1978), three albums by New York post-punk group Talking Heads, and albums by new wave bands Devo and Ultravox, among others. In subsequent decades, he has produced or worked on albums by U2, James, Laurie Anderson, Coldplay, Paul Simon, Grace Jones, James Blake and Slowdive, among others. Eno has also pursued multimedia ventures in parallel to his music career, including his mid-1970s development of "Oblique Strategies" (written with Peter Schmidt), a deck of cards featuring cryptic aphorisms intended to break creative blocks and encourage lateral thinking.