Whether we agree with it or not, there was always a plausible argument for intervention in Iraq. The Prime Minister might, therefore, have fewer problems with public opinion in the future than he does now. The important political question to be asked is not whether his policy is right or wrong - that is a rather different ethical and moral question - but why a man usually so risk-averse was prepared to take so many risks with the unity of the Labour Party. It was, or should have been, apparent to the most casual observer that the Labour Party would be deeply divided by the Government's policies towards Iraq and, by extension, to the UN. Labour carries far too much historical baggage for such policies to be anything other than divisive; and possibly disastrously divisive.

LRB 3 April 2003 | PDF Download