A FORMER Home and Foreign Secretary displayed “disarming clarity” when answering questions on Iraq during his lecture in Haddington last week, said county MSP Iain Gray.

Jack Straw MP gave this year’s John P Mackintosh Memorial Lecture – the 31st lecture in the annual series, held in honour of John P Mackintosh, MP for Berwick and East Lothian from 1966 to 1978 – last Wednesday evening at St Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington.

The title of his lecture was ‘Has British perfidy come back to bite us? Britain and the Middle East in this century and the last’.

Mr Gray said: “The setting was spectacular, the music from Knox Academy’s jazz band was superb, and several hundred people heard Jack Straw speak on Britain’s engagement in the Middle East, taking a broad historical view back to the First World War. “He also answered questions, including a number on more recent events in Iraq in which of course he had a key role as Foreign Secretary.

“He answered these with disarming clarity, courtesy and a refreshing willingness to admit to mistakes with hindsight.” In addition to being a much-loved local MP, John P Mackintosh was a brilliant academic and prolific author and journalist and an early champion of devolution. He died, aged 48, in July 1978.

l Pictured, left to right, are: Deirdre Mackintosh; Professor Susan Deacon (assistant principal, The University of Edinburgh who chaired the lecture); Iain Gray MSP; The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP; Ludovic Broun-Lindsay (Provost of East Lothian); Fiona O’Donnell MP; Charlotte Barbour. Pic Garry Menzies.