David Norris (Independent)

Yesterday I asked for a rolling debate on Iraq. Although I had to attend a committee meeting, I looked at the Official Report and was very pleased with the Leader's response. She dealt comprehensively with the difficulty we have regarding information. However, she did not indicate that we would have the debate I requested. The House has an absolute moral responsibility to monitor the conflict, particularly in the light of what the Leader said yesterday about the information deficit and the great difficulty that the public and responsible, professional politicians like ourselves have in making up our minds on the real circumstances and in making political judgments on this basis.

We learned today of the bombing of the Iraqi national television station in Baghdad. The other day, the US complained about violations of the Geneva Convention. This is another one. The Iraqi television station is a civilian operation, part of the infrastructure. This is forbidden by the Geneva Convention.