R.I.P. Robin Cook.

"It has been a favourite theme of commentators that this House no longer occupies a central role in British politics. Nothing could better demonstrate that they are wrong than for this House to stop the commitment of troops in a war that has neither international agreement nor domestic support. I intend to join those tomorrow night who will vote against military action now. It is for that reason, and for that reason alone, and with a heavy heart, that I resign from the government."

So it was Robin Cook's funeral today.

"It is revealing that Britain now has a prime minister who uses "liberal" as a term of abuse, in the way that a North American politician would."
Robin Cook, July 2004

slow download has reproduced his incredible resignation speech when he left Government over the war.

"We should not accept the implicit assumption of Bush's muscular foreign policy that freedom can be delivered from 38,000ft through the bomb doors." Robin Cook, January 2005

"What has come to trouble me is the suspicion that if the 'hanging chads' of Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commit British troops to action in Iraq."
Robin Cook, March 2003

"There were no international terrorists in Iraq until we went in. It was we who gave the perfect conditions in which Al Qaeda could thrive."
Robin Cook.

"It's hard to see how we are going to secure both of these [climate change and peace in the Middle East] with a president in America who is not committed to them."
Robin Cook.

"The longer we remain in Iraq the more our occupation becomes part of the problem... rather than the solution."
Robin Cook.

"We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a threat."
Robin Cook.

See also Robin Cook's column in the Guardian.