http://timblair.blogspot.com/2002_08_18_timblair_archive.html#80620290 “Ali Bakhtiyari, the refugee accused of having fraudulently obtained a temporary protection visa, has admitted to the The Age that he spent two years in the Pakistani city of Quetta before paying people smugglers thousands of dollars to get him to Australia. …” (The Age)
I don’t think it very good form (or a good tactical move) to make much of Ali Bakhtiyari’s lies. (Blair probably shouldn’t have paid much attention to him in the first place.) Bakhtiyari may have lied, but others, without doubt, didn’t, haven’t and aren’t: Blair would get more mileage from his point on the political spectrum by sticking to its traditional strongholds of principles, consistency, fairness, the rule of law, etc. 09:58