.
1
Undone by the Special Relationship? The Implications of the British Government’s
Support for the United States’ Iraqi Policy
Consider the following: an examination of the major British broadsheets in the July 2003
provides a daunting list of troubles facing Tony Blair, his government and the Labour Party:
•
Mounting evidence of a loss of trust in Blair and the government
•
Increasing public skepticism about the government’s competence
•
Across the board loss of media support, perhaps most notably in the left-wing
broadsheets
•
A notable drop in Labour Party membership
•
A general sense that the prime minister is out of touch with the Labour Party’s
grassroots
•
The Labour Party left-wing leading most of the larger trade unions
•
A more assertive dissident left, especially left-wing Labour MPs
•
A concerted attempt to push the government left by both party activists and left-wing
MPs
•
The “falling apart” of the cabinet—recent resignations signify the destruction of the
original New Labour coalition—and nearly 50 former ministers now sit in the House
of Commons
•
A governing party that appears to have lost its sense of mission and optimism
•
A prime minister who is widely viewed as arrogant and more eager to play on the
world stage than the domestic one
Alternatively in Thirty Days, Peter Stothard’s account of thirty da ys inside Downing Street
during the height of the Iraq crisis, the author describes the “political wreckage” following the
Iraq crisis as follows:
There are the activists who marched against the war and feel just as unforgiving at its end as
does the American President. There are the voters whose higher taxes are not improving the
Health Service. There is a parliamentary party that has learnt to love the rebellion. There is
Robin Cook at loose on the backbenches. There are neglected problems in English schools, in
Scottish politics, and doubtless in Scottish football. There are rising politicians of the far
right in the towns where the War Cabinet watch their favorite teams. There are asylum-
seekers, flowing ill-controlled into L constituencies. There is Clare Short, who will be free on
the backbenches soon. This was not a popular war, not even when it was won. Anger
remains, as well as pride. Voters sometimes favor the victorious. Often they do not….He
(Blair) has changed in the past thirty days. He will have to give serious thought soon to how
much his voters have changed with him (Stothard 2003, 234).
Convention