He grieved that he was unable to avert the conflict. But look at his words: he was so right and, had he endured, would have offered much more
Twenty years ago this evening I sat in the visitor’s gallery of the House of Commons to watch its departed leader, Robin Cook, deliver what many came to regard as the finest parliamentary speech of its era.
The days leading up to it had been spent in his company preparing for that moment and the resignation that preceded it. It was an event full of mixed emotions and political significance, and it has lost none of its power in the time since.
