I’ve just got back from a cold but worth-it few hours outside the Iraq Inquiry. Blair’s still giving evidence, it feels a bit early to draw conclusions about the quality of the questioning. It seems pretty certain to me though that the people asking the questions knew we wanted them to get tough.

14,200 of us had signed the petition by the time we handed it over as an official submission to the inquiry for a final time today. They must have been pretty familiar with us by then – we’ve been sending them email updates of the questions and petition numbers for the past few days, and yesterday evening we paid Sir Roderic Lyne a personal visit to present him with a copy and a “get tough” cake to share with his fellow questioners.

Today we also had the help of some excellent cheerleaders, who gathered a bit of a crowd with chants such as:

“Give us a W, Give us an M, Give us a D….No seriously, show us some…”
There are some pictures on our facebook group. They were real stars, and really into the campaign.

We also had some Billboard Advertisments around London with our top questions on – there’s an article about them with some pics here.

Chilcot seems to have hinted that Blair may be called back to give more evidence later on in the inquiry – perhaps an encouraging sign that the Inquiry is feeling the need to get tougher, and definitely a reason for us to keep up the pressure.

When did you first promise George Bush you’d back an invasion? When did you really realise Saddam Hussein probably didn’t have WMD? Did you cover up advice that the war might be illegal? These are just a few of the questions that 13,525 of us want Tony Blair to face tomorrow at the Iraq Inquiry.

Over the last few days thousands of us from across the UK have signed the petition calling on the Iraq Inquiry to get tough on Blair.

Tonight we’re delivering the petition, along with the “get tough” cake on the right to the Panel and we’ll make sure they receive it tomorrow too. We’ve got lots more planned for tomorrow to make sure the panel and Blair know we want the truth. If you can join us we’d love to see you, we’re meeting outside the Middlesex Guildhall by Parliament Square tomorrow morning from eight, complete with cheerleaders shouting our tough questions to Tony Blair.

You can stay up to date with what we’re up to by following us on Twitter and we’ll update the blog too.

There’s still time to sign the petition, once you’ve signed it don’t forget to ask your friends and family too.

Tony Blair gives evidence to the Iraq Inquiry this Friday. Since we last blogged about what we want Blair asked at the Inquiry, thousands more of us have submitted our questions and the petition to Sir John Chilcot now has over 10,000 signatures. Earlier today, we went into central London to ask people which questions they wanted him to answer: you can see the responses we got on our video clip here.

With the pre-war period back in the news again, the questions are getting more focused. We want to know whether the need to keep war preparations a secret meant not enough planning was done in the run-up to the invasion. We also want to find out when Blair decided to go to war: had he already made commitments to the US before he went before Parliament? There’s also the question of what pressure was put on Lord Goldsmith, something the Attorney General’s appearance before the Inquiry on Thursday should help to answer.

But as we know, its not just about what questions we ask Blair. It’s also about how they’re asked. That’s why 10,000 of us have signed a petition asking the panel to get tough on the former PM. It’s also why 38 Degrees will be outside the Inquiry on Friday morning to make sure they do.

Here are our most popular questions for Blair:
Why weren’t the UN weapons inspectors allowed to finish their work?
When did you first promise George Bush you would back an invasion?
Why wasn’t more done to prepare for rebuilding Iraq after the invasion?
On what specific intelligence was the WMD claim based?
Lord Goldsmith changed his mind about the legality of going to war. What was your role in this?
What advice did you get from the Foreign Office about the effect invading Iraq might have on the region?
If regime change was the real reason for going to war, why weren’t you more open with the British public and parliament?
Why weren’t more of the Cabinet involved in the decision to go to war?
Why did you ignore the anti-war protests by the British people?

In early January, 38 Degrees members joined in with ‘Speak up for Sudan’ to tell the Government to protect civilians in Sudan.

With only one year left until a referendum that will shape the future of Africa’s largest country there is a real opportunity to help the people of Sudan build a peaceful and more prosperous future, in which basic human rights are guaranteed. But without adequate preparation, the upcoming national elections and referendum could re-ignite conflict between the north and the south of the country. To the west of the country, the humanitarian situation in Darfur remains bad.

By the end of last week, hundreds of people had sent letters and e-mails to their MPs. The Beat for Peace video has been watched over 100,000 times and several campaigners have uploaded their own responses. Drumming protesters also gathered outside Downing Street to send a message to the Prime Minister about Sudan.

The government have responded to building pressure on Sudan, announcing £54 million aid package for Sudan on 6th January. Gordon Brown also issued a statement urging everyone in Sudan to increase their efforts to secure a peaceful future. He said that the international community would support Sudan’s leaders to ensure that peace and not conflict would be Sudan’s future.

We’re planning to keep up the pressure for the UK government to play its part in protecting human rights and promoting peace in Sudan and around the world.

During the expenses crisis our MPs let us down and we had no way to hold them to account. That’s why we’ve been campaigning for a Recall Law, which would give local voters the power to sack their MP.

So far, over 10 000 people have signed our petition. Now we’ve got the chance to put pressure on the government in another way.

Power 2010 are an organisation devoted to getting political reform onto the agenda of the party that wins the 2010 election. People have been submitting their ideas for reform to the 2010 website, and now they’re asking us to vote on the best ideas, one of which is the Recall Law.

The five reform ideas with most votes will become part of pledge that Power 2010 will campaign to get each candidate for the next election to sign up to, so that we can be sure that the next government will be a reforming one.

The Recall Law is currently in 9th place. Help us get Recall into the top five by voting for the law on the 2010 website.

A couple of people have got in touch with us asking questions about the election consultation. Here are the answers to the most common questions.

How do I get involved? Thousands of 38 Degrees members from every corner of the UK are helping us decide what we should do in the election right now. To get involved just sign up here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/2010-election and we’ll send you login details within 24 hours.

I’ve lost my login details: Don’t worry. Just go here to get a reminder sent to you very soon http://38degrees.achordus.net/member/getreminder

How do I use Achordus: We’ve prepared a quick slide show to show you around the forum. Watch it below

I’ve got other questions – who should I contact: To contact the moderator team email support@achordus.com

Over the past week 38 Degrees members have been thinking of tough questions to ask Tony Blair at the Iraq Inquiry. On Wednesday Hannah and I went to a high profile event at the Foreign Press Association, which was  inspired by our campaign.

Discussing how the Inquiry should be carried out were Jon Snow, the veteran Channel 4 journalist, and Professor Philippe Sands, a QC who has written a book on the legality of the Iraq war.

Jon Snow then asked Professor Sands how he would handle the interrogation of Tony Blair and other ministers if he was a member of the panel. Professor Sands responded at length, but his main ideas were:

Firstly, he would insist on the use of documentary evidence, some of which is currently unavailable to the public, to help expose the flaws in witnesses’ statements.

Secondly, he would find out Blair’s motivation in going to war by questioning him closely about the inconsistencies in his thinking in the year before the decision was taken.

Thirdly, he would ask about the content of the available intelligence in the run up to the war, why the government had waited so long to ask for legal advice, and about Lord Goldsmith’s role.

Finally, he would ask why “no thought [was] given on a systematic basis” to the question of post-war planning and the possible effect of the war on the Middle East. Had Blair even read the advice on regional instabilities given to him by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office?

The discussion finished with a bit of psychological speculation about why Tony Blair did go to war. Professor Sands was happy to give his opinion on the matter: Tony “needed to be loved by the biggest boy in the playground”: George Bush.

You can listen to recording of the whole conversation at the Foreign Press Association website.

Yesterday the worst earthquake in 200 years struck Haiti. As the full scale of the disaster emerges the BBC is now reporting that the death toll from the disaster could exceed 100,000. Although there is as yet no accurate assessment of the death toll it is clear that millions of people live in the affected area. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, greatly increasing the risk that people will suffer or die in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

Our thoughts are with all those affected by this disaster.

As a UK based organisation we don’t have the capacity to offer assistance but here is a list of organisations that are working hard to help the thousands of victims:

The Disasters Emergency Comittee has launched an appeal which will suport the efforts of the DEC’s members which are the major UK aid agencies. You can donate online http://www.dec.org.uk/ or over the phone: 0370 60 60 900

Avaaz.org has launched an appeal “100% of funds raised will go into post-earthquake relief and rebuilding programmes and efforts to strengthen local systems in Haiti — it’s the most direct way to build Haiti’s resilience and help meet the desperate needs of the people on the frontline who need help urgently today. Donate here: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_haiti/

UNICEF have issued a statement that “Children are always the most vulnerable population in any natural disaster, and UNICEF is there for them.” UNICEF requests donations for relief for children in Haiti via their Haiti Earthquake Fund.

Medicins san Frontieres are responding to the Earthquake in Haiti with their usual speed and efficiency and any donations would be of a great help.

Oxfam has long experience in Haiti, and they are rushing in teams from around the region to respond where they’re needed most. They already have a team in Port-au-Prince and their response will include providing clean water, shelter and sanitation.

More organisations appealing for funds are listed here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/haiti-earthquake-relief-h_n_421014.html

(With thanks to leftoutside http://leftoutside.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/help-haiti/)

Our general election consultation has got off to a great start. Thousands of us have signed up to discuss what strategy 38 Degrees should adopt in the run up to May 2010, and there’s a clear sense of energy and purpose in the consultation space.

At the moment we’ve got four discussions running in the space: What are the best and worst outcomes of the election? What are the key issues for us to focus on during the election? How much should we do during the general election? What tactics could we try?

I’ve been taking a look at some of the conversations we’ve been having. One of the busiest areas of discussion so far has been electoral reform. Some of us are fed up with a system that puts the power to determine an election result in the hands of a few voters in marginal seats. As one person put it, “electoral reform is a vital first step to having the views of the progressive majority represented.” Another suggested that voter apathy is a problem we should solve: “I think it’s important to treat the election as something that belongs to all of us.”

Another key topic across the discussion areas is the worry that MPs aren’t accountable to their constituents. One participant said that “the parliamentary whip system generally means that they [MPs] end up representing the position of their party leadership, not that of those who they were elected to represent.” Could 38 Degrees take action to change this?

We’ve already had some memorable posts, too. Thanks to Nemone C for inspiring the ‘How much we should do’ discussion by titling their post “the optimism of the action is better than the pessimism of the thought.”

Please join in our discussion. All you need to do is fill in your details on this form: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/2010-election and we’ll send you login details within 24 hours.