The Guardian has a very depressing interview with Tony Blair who apparently is “tired and has a cold” amongst his many other problems.
There are some strange comments from the PM: “It’s worse than you think”, he says, “I believe in it. I am truly committed to dealing with this, irrespective of the position of America.” which one can only hope is a bit of dry Blair sarcasm to a Guardian reporter.
But what really concerns me is this argument that has been the government line since the February 15 demonstrations:
He recognises that those on the other side feel as passionately about their views as he does about his. “And what is more, I don’t take issue with people who feel strongly on it, you know, lambast them or say their arguments aren’t sound. I totally understand why people feel this. But I simply say to them, this is a real danger and a real threat; this regime has done terrible things to its own people.”
For what it is worth, I reckon he would be better advised to indeed take issue with the ‘anti-war’ crowd and gave them a right good lambasting.
I couldn’t care less if Blair is a casualty of this war, I’ve never been attracted to his style or much of his politics, but I happen to agree with him over Iraq and would like to see his opponents roundly exposed and humiliated over this issue. If the likes of George Galloway and his followers leave the Labour Party then it should be a cause for celebration. Let them go and collect lost deposits with the Socialist Alliance.
Even if it may not be wise tactics for the PM to personally engage in some hard-hitting attacks on his reactionary-left opponents, why can’t he let loose Blunkett or Prescott on the Trot-Islamicist Coalition?
And where the hell are the supposedly famed spin doctors when they are needed? Where have been the exposes of Galloway and of the SWP-MAB alliance?
There is so much material with which to really slam the ‘anti-war’ people, why isn’t it being used?
Why the hell aren’t Labour Party branches being given dossiers on the Stop the War Coalition?
This government was shamefully happy to go dirty on the Firebrigade Union during last year’s strikes but it is ‘understanding’ about a movement that has begun to really harm them.
Call me old fashioned but I smell class here. It was fine to have a pop at the working class firefighters demanding a decent wage but the salaried Guardian readers who took to the street on Feb 15 are ‘middle England’ (newspeak for middle class of course) and so the kid-gloves must be used.
Take the gloves off and get back to some basic politics. After a relentless series of attacks on the unsavoury leadership of the Stop the War Coalition, I bet fickle ‘Middle England’ will quietly hide behind their UN-mandate figleaf.
Are Middle Class England aware they are marching behind an alliance of two groups – one who wish to replace parliamentry democracy with a dictatorship of the proleteriat and another who would have us live under sharia law, united only in their shared hatred of Israel?
They should be and it is about time they were told.
