Peace Group remembers the dead of the Iraq war as Alastair Campbell speaks in Rochdale

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group remembers the dead of the Iraq war as Alastair Campbell speaks in Rochdale

Supporters of Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group held a minute's silence to remember the hundreds of thousands killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, as Tony Blair's 'spin doctor' Alastair Campbell spoke at One Riverside in Rochdale on Saturday night.

The group distributed leaflets reminding people that Alastair Campbell was the person who had overseen the 'dodgy dossiers' of September 2002 and 2003 which gave very misleading information about the weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was ultimately proved not to possess.

They gathered around a sign asking those attending Campbell's talk at the Festival to ‘Remember the deaths and the dossiers’.

They held placards reading: ‘Dodgy dossiers kill’, ‘Dodgy dossiers kill people’, ‘Dodgy dossiers destroy culture’ and ‘Dodgy dossiers kill truth’.

On behalf of the group, Philip Gilligan said: "Alastair Campbell should be at the International Court of Justice in the Hague answering questions about aiding and abetting Tony Blair's case for an unnecessary and illegal war, not at Rochdale's wonderful festival being paid to promote his book.

"Blair's invasion of Iraq was based on untruths and as a result of his misleading of parliament hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men and 179 British servicemen and women died in an unnecessary war, while Iraq was plunged into a dangerous chaos from which it has yet to emerge."