Posted Saturday, November 21 at 11:22 PM CST; Sunday, November 22 at 12:22 AM EST, 0522 GMT.
Top stories in Sunday morning’s London papers:
1) Andrew Gilligan reports for the Sunday Telegraph on a set of leaked papers on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which reveal deception and rushed, inadequate preparation in the run-up to war. The documents indicate that former Prime Minister Tony Blair was preparing for war throughout 2002, even while he insisted publicly that the country’s objective was “disarmament, not regime change.” This secrecy led to a rushed operation, with some soldiers sent into action with only five bullets each. A Foreign Office unit responsible for postwar operations was established only three weeks before the war started. “The documents emerge two days before public hearings begin in the Iraq Inquiry, the tribunal appointed under Sir John Chilcot, a former Whitehall civil servant,” Gilligan notes.
2) The Sunday Times reports that Lord Mandelson is pressuring Prime Minister Gordon Brown to appoint him foreign secretary in a cabinet reshuffle, setting the stage for a dispute that could tear apart the government. “Mandelson made the request after he was snubbed for the post of European Union foreign minister at last week’s Brussels summit,” the paper reports, adding: “If [Brown] bows to Mandelson’s wishes, he risks alienating David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and his ally Ed Balls, the schools secretary, who is still eager for promotion. If he refuses Mandelson’s demand, he risks losing his loyalty with potentially devastating consequences for the election.”
3) The Observer reports on the results of an Ipsos MORI survey commissioned for the paper, which shows that the Conservatives’ lead has shrunk, and that the possibility of a hung parliament looms. The survey gives the Conservatives 37% support, with Labour at 31% and the Liberal Democrats at 17%. “It is the narrowest gap between the two main parties in any poll since last December and demonstrates that, rather than powering towards a landslide victory, [David] Cameron’s party is struggling to capture the number of floating voters it needs to win a decisive mandate,” according to the Observer.
4) The Independent on Sunday features a special report by Emily Dugan on asbestos-relaed cancer in the British workplace.”Exposure to asbestos is now the biggest killer in the British workforce, killing about 4,000 people every year – more than who die in traffic accidents…. Whether it was dockyard workers who unloaded the lethal cargoes, or those in the factories exposed to the fibres, or the carpenters, laggers, plumbers, electricians and shipyard workers who routinely used asbestos for insulation – all suffered.” Asbestos was only banned entirely in 1999. Since asbestos dust can linger in the lungs for decades, deaths related to the substance are not expected to peak until 2016.