WHY BRITAIN HAS GONE ALONG WITH ALL OF THIS

"[Getting rid of a murderous regime in Iraq] was not the reason why we went to war.  My view is that we went to war because America wanted to establish a political and military platform in the Middle East, it saw a need for oil ....”
Michael Meacher, UK Government Environment Minister sacked by Tony Blair June 2003
London Times, 20 June 2003

AFTER THE INVASION OF IRAQ
"The UK is a net exporter of oil, so we have no need of the Iraqi oil."
British Prime Minister, House of Commons, 14 April 2003

BEFORE THE INVASION OF IRAQ
".... our energy system faces new challenges.... Our energy supplies will increasingly depend on imported gas and oil..... we need access to a wide range of energy sources."
British Prime Minister, Foreward to DTI Energy White Paper, February 2003

"We must deal with the implications of reduced UK oil, gas and coal production, which will make us a net energy importer instead of an energy exporter... as we shift from being a net energy exporter to being once again a net energy importer we may become potentially more vulnerable to... political instability or conflict in other parts of the world... The best way of maintaining energy reliability will be through energy diversity. We need many sources of energy, many suppliers and many supply routes..."
DTI Energy White Paper, February 2003

United Kingdom Oil Production Curve (with discovery as a bar graph),
Association for the Study of Peak Oil, Newsletter 20, August 2002
(Compiled by Dr Colin Campbell)

"The advocates of war insist it's not about oil. But global oil production is on the brink of terminal decline and when the West begins to run short of supplies - Iraq could be a lifeline...Geologist Dr Colin Campbell predicted a decline in the North Sea several years ago and claims by 2015 Britain may have to import over half its oil needs.... Campbell thinks the decline [of global oil production] will start by 2010. 'It starts with a price shock due to control of the market by a few countries, and it is followed by the onset of physical shortage, which just gets worse and worse and worse,' he says."
  'Oil War'
Money Programme, BBC2, 26 March 2003

"British oil company BP PLC has put a team to work on a strategy for its future in oil-rich Iraq, people familiar with the situation said Tuesday. The news follows a meeting in London at the weekend where Iraqi exiles and U.S. state department officials agreed that international oil firms should take a leading postwar role in reviving Iraq's oil industry. Oil companies and the U.S. and British governments have been unwilling to talk openly about the future of the oil industry in Iraq. They fear fueling accusations that the invasion of the country by U.S. and British troops was motivated by a desire to get western hands on the world's second largest reserves of crude...In 1920, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, as BP then was, became the largest shareholder of the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), a cartel of western oil companies that sought to carve up the energy resources of Iraq and those of other Middle East nations. The company remained a core member of IPC for the next 40 years, exploring and developing production in Iraq. In 1961, five years after Anglo-Iranian was renamed British Petroleum, a revolutionary government in Iraq cancelled most of the IPC's concessions, leaving only some producing oil fields in its hands. In 1971 the remaining production concessions were nationalized too. CEO Browne was recently appointed to Britain's House of Lords by Prime Minister Tony Blair. Anji Hunter, a former close aide of Blair's, is BP's director of communications."
BP maps out Iraq strategy
Reuters, 9 April 2003

"Dwindling domestic supplies and surging demand could lead to a severe gas shortage within three years, the Department of Trade and Industry warned British consumers yesterday."
Gas shortage in Britain 'due within three years'
London Times, 26 June 2002

"Iraq holds more than 112 billion barrels of oil - the world's second largest proven reserves. Iraq also contains 110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas....."
Iraq, Country Analysis Brief, February 2003
US Energy Information Administration

"By 2020, the country could be dependent on imported energy for 80 per cent of its needs"
Blowin' in the wind: the answer to Britain's looming energy crisis
Independent, 15 July 2003

"The offshore wind farms announced today will provide [a mere] 5 per cent of total UK electricity supply... The Government has not yet given a firm commitment to a renewables market after 2010."
London Times, 15 July 2003

"President Bush, asked about the Niger issue at a news conference during his visit to South Africa, did not answer directly but said that he was 'certain that Saddam Hussein had a weapons of mass destruction programme'. Like Mr Blair, he has dropped the assertion that Iraq actually had weapons. Both now say that it had a 'programme.' "
Did Iraq try to get African uranium?
BBC Online 9 July

"There is no longer any serious doubt that Bush administration officials deceived us into war. The key question now is why so many influential people are in denial, unwilling to admit the obvious....  even people who aren't partisan Republicans shy away from confronting the administration's dishonest case for war, because they don't want to face the implications."
Denial and Deception
New York Times, 24 June 2003

  NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@btinternet.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex