Tomorrow afternoon, Friday 5th March, I shall be seated in the same room as Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he appears before the Chilcot Inquiry to explain his actions as the then Chancellor of the Exchequer during the Iraq War.I expect he will be pressed on his level of funding for the troops on the frontline as well as the level of support Mr Brown gave the armed forces as they prepared for war. Sir Kevin Tebbit, the former Ministry of Defence permanent secretary, has already told the Chilcot Inquiry that Mr Brown had "guillotined" defence spending shortly after the 2003 invasion, so it should be an interesting confrontation.
As for Tony Blair’s appearance before the panel, a public ballot was held for the 60 seats available to the public in the chamber for each session of the day. Even though only 323 people applied for this session compared to the more than 3,000 that applied for a seat for Mr Blair's appearance, it will be chance to be a part of history.
I shall be there in the afternoon, and shall tweet live (and discreetly) and you can follow the tweets by clicking here.
