If Blair had not been foolish enough to get into this war he would not now be facing a narrowing poll gap for the forthcoming election. The sad thing is that I believe his intentions are good. His real mistake was to lie about the situation.
I do not object to the British Government using its position to try to do good in the world. I might even be a supporter of his present legislation if I believed what he has to say about the world situation. But as things stand he has said time and time again to trust him. On his personal honour to believe his unsupported word about how things really stood. And time and time again he or members of his government speaking on his behalf have been proven not to be telling it as it is. So be it. He has asked us to judge him by his words, and in this matter they have been more false than true.
I would respect him very much more had he stood up in parliament and stated that for economic reasons as well as humanitarian ones he intended to invade an essentially unarmed foreign nation. Or even simply because his ally America had requested it. Acknowledging that the result of this would inevitably be an unknown and unknowable number of dead british citizens and a huge financial cost. I would have respected him for his truth. It is the only way he could have had my support for this war. I do not like politicians who deceive. It is not possible to trust them with the right to lock anybody up.
As to her majesties opposition. Perhaps the conservative party would have felt even more obliged to support the Americans than did labour. Still a few favours owed for helping Maggie. I really doubt things would have turned out differently under a conservative regime.
Blair and new labour have been good for this country. No question about it. And no reason to think the conservatives could do better or even as well. But their aspirations to set the world to rights have been blown away by the hurricane from America.
If you do not show 'barbaric animals' fairness then you become one yourself. Worse yet, the cycle never ends. Does no one remember that world war two was really world war one part two? It was the revenge extracted by the victors in WW1 which allowed Hitler to come to power. And be absolutely certain that any bad treatment by the invading armies in Iraq will be repaid ten fold because of its propaganda value to the several freedom fighter groups in the region.
We do not have to 'do something'. Everything which needs to be done should have been done before the war started. Should have been done many years ago, because we have been fighting terrorists in this country for the whole of this century. Nothing unpredictable has happened. Politicians hate doing nothing. But it is can be a very wise thing to do.
And does no one remember that WW1 pretty much started by accident? Because various different countries felt obliged to come to the aid of their 'allies'.
Distancing us from our closest 'allies', the Americans? You mean the people whose policy has resulted in British citizens fearing being killed by terrorists at any minute? With friends like that.....
We will not get the chance to get rid of this government. The biggest possible change would be to install a conservative one instead. This is just choosing between apples and pears. Superficial differences, but absolutely no chance to influence matters which are really important to people. You want me to start on how I would reform the UK constitution to actually give people a say? The government has totally blocked all proposals to 'democratically' reform the Lords in any meaningful way. The conservatives would not have reformed it at all. (though arguably that would have left it more democratic than what Blair has done)
I do not object to the British Government using its position to try to do good in the world. I might even be a supporter of his present legislation if I believed what he has to say about the world situation. But as things stand he has said time and time again to trust him. On his personal honour to believe his unsupported word about how things really stood. And time and time again he or members of his government speaking on his behalf have been proven not to be telling it as it is. So be it. He has asked us to judge him by his words, and in this matter they have been more false than true.
I would respect him very much more had he stood up in parliament and stated that for economic reasons as well as humanitarian ones he intended to invade an essentially unarmed foreign nation. Or even simply because his ally America had requested it. Acknowledging that the result of this would inevitably be an unknown and unknowable number of dead british citizens and a huge financial cost. I would have respected him for his truth. It is the only way he could have had my support for this war. I do not like politicians who deceive. It is not possible to trust them with the right to lock anybody up.
As to her majesties opposition. Perhaps the conservative party would have felt even more obliged to support the Americans than did labour. Still a few favours owed for helping Maggie. I really doubt things would have turned out differently under a conservative regime.
Blair and new labour have been good for this country. No question about it. And no reason to think the conservatives could do better or even as well. But their aspirations to set the world to rights have been blown away by the hurricane from America.
If you do not show 'barbaric animals' fairness then you become one yourself. Worse yet, the cycle never ends. Does no one remember that world war two was really world war one part two? It was the revenge extracted by the victors in WW1 which allowed Hitler to come to power. And be absolutely certain that any bad treatment by the invading armies in Iraq will be repaid ten fold because of its propaganda value to the several freedom fighter groups in the region.
We do not have to 'do something'. Everything which needs to be done should have been done before the war started. Should have been done many years ago, because we have been fighting terrorists in this country for the whole of this century. Nothing unpredictable has happened. Politicians hate doing nothing. But it is can be a very wise thing to do.
And does no one remember that WW1 pretty much started by accident? Because various different countries felt obliged to come to the aid of their 'allies'.
Distancing us from our closest 'allies', the Americans? You mean the people whose policy has resulted in British citizens fearing being killed by terrorists at any minute? With friends like that.....
We will not get the chance to get rid of this government. The biggest possible change would be to install a conservative one instead. This is just choosing between apples and pears. Superficial differences, but absolutely no chance to influence matters which are really important to people. You want me to start on how I would reform the UK constitution to actually give people a say? The government has totally blocked all proposals to 'democratically' reform the Lords in any meaningful way. The conservatives would not have reformed it at all. (though arguably that would have left it more democratic than what Blair has done)
