When Tony Blair met Harry Patch, longest surviving soldier from the first world war

On 6 June 2006, Tony Blair posed with Harry Patch, no doubt seeing a flattering photo opportunity with the longest surviving soldier from World War 1.

If he had read Harry's book, The Last Fighting Tommy, Blair would have known he was likely to get more than he bargained for from the 108-year-old veteran. In it, Harry wrote.

"The politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder".

"War is organised murder," Harry told Blair, who only three years earlier had taken Britain into the illegal Iraq war. Blair scuttled away.

Harry Patch - Anti War Hero: born 17 June 1898 died 25 July 2009.

Words by Heathcote Williams
Video and narration by Alan Cox

For more films by Heathcote Williams and Alan Cox see the YouTube channel Babylonroyal...