This is nonsense - Blair went a very, very long way towards making Iraq happen, going far beyond what any PM should have done in the circumstances (and probably far beyond what any potential PM would have done, with the possible exception of IDS).
To suggest - without any evidence whatsoever - that someone else would have been even worse than him is clearly an attempt to minimize Blair's personal responsibility for what happened to an unacceptable degree.QUOTE]
Not true. In fact a dangerous misconception, which is likely to keep people voting for the Labor Party.
First of all, no-one could have made more effort to get us into Iraq than Blair. He was lying his ass off in parliament and all over the media, he abandoned any scruple he ever might have had.
Second, the Tories retain a residual pride in British independence and still harbor illusions about being a player on the world stage. They wouldn't have followed a policy so obviously against British interests.
Third: the Nixon-to-China syndrome. Blair got away with it because of people who consider themselves liberals, or even Leftists, who backed him because they thought the war was about getting rid of a nasty dictator, or the liberation of women (remember that one) or somesuch crap.
So the Tories would certainly not have been as bad as Labor on this issue. And this is the sort of issue that would make me a single-issue voter, if I could be bothered to vote.
You're both talking bollocks. As Yossarian posted, IDS and the Tories were completely accepting of the UKs role in the build-up to Riaq, and given their long, long pro-American support, they would have been more than happy to go the same way Blair did.
Bit in bold - it's the mark of someone who's lost an argument to create a strawman like that. How does my statement reduce Blair's culpability? It doesn't; all I'm pointing out is that the tories would have behaved no differently. 'Clearly an attempt to minimize his personal responsibilty'...jesus...but then given a great many of your comments on this thread, starting with the guff about how the tories will reduce state spending on PFI, quangoes and consultants shows you're either a. trumping the tories and ignoring the obvious or b. have no real idea about how the tory party, and tories, think.
Bit in bold italics - pish and tish. The Tories frame British 'independence' in terms of Europe. Fucks sake, there's a rump of the Tory party that wants us out of Europe and by some machination (officially) becoming the 51st state of America!
