Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Iraq War

Ed Milliband was right to declare the Iraq war wrong. Politicians are deaf to the universal clamour against this adventure, which will be made even shriller when Chilcot is published. It will not be possible for any political leader to win an election in the future without first repudiating this ill fated, ill starred and to most, illegal war.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. Had it not been for continuing to line up behind, what was after all, Tony Blair’s war, Labour might have won enough seats to be the party to go into coalition with the Lib Dems. Moreover, had David followed a more independent foreign policy and come out against the war, as the effect of the disaster became clear and the truth began to unravel, he would have been Labour Leader probably before the general election in May, but certainly now. 

Ed now joins Nick as  two main party leaders against the war. As Chilcot emerges Cameron will notice his isolation. It will shift the political ground. If Labour under Ed becomes negative about cuts, woolly about its own proposals and supportive of pointless strikes, the Conservatives will have nothing to fear. But if Ed has a good plan which is accepted by independent commentators as a runner, the Lib Dem benches in the Commons could become restive. That will make the coalition’s majority unstable. Things may not be set in quite so clear cut a mould for the next five years, as last week we supposed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Malcolm Blair Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.