News reached me today (Tuesday 24th) that Margaret Beckett, that useless non-entity of a Foreign Secretary, has admitted that history may judge the Iraq invasion as a 'disaster' for British foreign policy. It is worrying to think that as a senior member of the government she has taken this long to see the problem she was a party to creating.
My impression is that ordinary Labour members have fallen into 2 categories in terms of the war: opponents who whinge about it but have sat on their backsides ever since and done nothing to remove those who took us into such a ruinous operation, and those who blindly accepted the war and have continued to back it.
I found the first group to be the most objectionable. Typically (and so many Labour members from my home patch in Gateshead fall into this category) they whinge and whine about how dreadful their own government is but deny any responsibility for getting them elected. They behave as if Blair and the government have nothing to do with them yet come election time they claim the Labour government are the best thing since sliced bread.
The other group, the slavish supporters, who unquestioningly accept anything Tony and Gordon say and who regurgitate the meaningless soundbites they have been spoonfed when placed in a position where they have to argue their corner, are at least consistent over the war. They have been trained to think it was the right thing to do and it will be interesting to see how they respond to the recent Beckett pronouncements. Perhaps in the style of the sheep in Animal Farm they will be trained to say the opposite of what they have been saying since the war 3 years ago.
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