Even Sylvia Hermon voted for war, leaving the SDLP as the only seat-taking anti-war MPs from Northern Ireland, although it was notable that one of the pro-war Labour minority came from a Sinn Féin background.
Just as the war was opposed by two thirds of Labour MPs, including the Leader and over half of his Shadow Cabinet, but by only one forty-seventh of Conservatives.
Military interventionism is now pretty much the dividing line in British politics. The Right supports it, and indeed defines itself by that support.
Whereas, as much as anything else because it would rather that the money were spent on other things, the Left opposes it.
You can have the Welfare State or the Warfare State, but there is simply not enough cash for both.
From 2020 onwards, General Elections in Great Britain, at least, will be straight, and predictable, choices between the two.
You can have the Welfare State or the Warfare State, but there is simply not enough cash for both.
From 2020 onwards, General Elections in Great Britain, at least, will be straight, and predictable, choices between the two.
I agree with your opposition to the war, but your terminology is pure nonsense.
ReplyDeleteMultilateral liberal interventionism is a left-wing idea; that's why Clinton and Blair created it (and now Cameron and Hilary Benn etc have taken up the baton).
That's why the Far Right, Simon Heffer, Peter Hitchens (two of the most prominent capital punishment supporters and both among the few in the media prepared to speak out against #welcometherefugees) Ed West and Nigel Farage opposed this war-in line with the Daily Mail's own editorial.
It's why John Major's Government refused to intervene in Yugoslavia, the first left-wing intervention.
These are not imperialist or defensive wars by sovereign independent nations-they are multilateral liberal interventions in pursuit of utopian goals.
UKIP's leader opposed this war, and his party has rightly opposed all the wars Labour launched or supported-if the people don't like left-wing interventionism, then they should have elected Mr Farage to Parliament.
None of the Tory Right-neither Sir Edward Leigh, nor John Redwood nor David Davis,one of Parliament's most prominent supporters of capital punishment-voted for this war.
Just as the Republican Party, George Bush, Alan Clark and Auberon Waugh were among the most memorable and eloquent critics of the 1999 Kosovo war.
As Peter Oborne pointed out yesterday, David Cameron's "terrorist sympathiser" smear against opponents of this war "would also apply not just to Jeremy Corbyn but to the Daily Mail.
Simon Heffer
DeleteNot in Parliament. Never tried to be.
Peter Hitchens
Not in Parliament. Never tried to be, unless you count once having applied to be become a People's Peer.
Ed West
Not in Parliament. Never tried to be.
Nigel Farage
Not in Parliament, despite no fewer than seven attempts. So far, that is. And he is still only 51.
Two thirds of Labour MPs, including the Leader and over half of the Shadow Cabinet, opposed this war on a free vote. Several of the others are most unlikely, for various reasons, to be in the next Parliament, at least on the green benches.
45 out of every 47 Conservative MPs supported this war. Only one in 47 voted against it, and one of those now votes against everything. Again, how many of those seven will be MPs in 2020? Nor will Douglas Carswell be one.
Support also came from the full set of all three species of Unionist MPs from Northern Ireland.
British politics now splits Left-Right, peace-war, welfare-warfare, with relatively few exceptions now, and with almost none after the next General Election, which will be a straight choice between the two.
Anti-war commentators and newspapers will need to consider their endorsements in that light.
As Peter Oborne pointed out yesterday, David Cameron's "terrorist sympathiser" smear against opponents of this war would also apply not just to Jeremy Corbyn but to the Daily Mail.
ReplyDeleteQuite.
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