Halloween in the House of Horror

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

What will it take for Labour MPs to vote against the Iraq war? Clearly more than 655,000 Iraqi dead, a disastrous occupation, and polls which show 62% of people in Britain want the troops pulled out immediately.

Yesterday, Margaret Beckett, in a speech which must amount to an insult to her own intelligence, let alone everyone else's, claimed that the time was not right for an inquiry, that any vote for such an inquiry would give succour to terrorists, and that Iraq was heading towards democracy.

No wonder there are problems imposing democracy on the Middle East when we base it on our model. Because yesterday was an appalling day for democracy. The government won not because of the superiority of its arguments, not because most of its own supporters even believe those arguments, but because Labour MPs meekly trot into the division lobbies to vote along party lines, regardless of the consequences.

Calling it a debate gives the wrong impression. Most of the time the chamber is pretty empty, filling up at the beginning and the end, when suddenly the various ministers and other members of the payroll vote appear, vote as they're told to and go off for other more important business.

The parties which tabled the debate, Plaid Cymru and the SNP, should be congratulated for getting it onto the agenda and for uniting so much opposition behind them. They managed to win all the parties apart from Labour and forced the pro war Tories to oppose the government, however pathetically. Their arguments were good, but simply not answered.

Perhaps the most idiotic question to them was what did Iraq have to do with the people of Scotland and Wales? The best known anti-war MP, George Galloway, was not even called to speak.

All credit, too, to the 12 Labour MPs who joined the opposition. But why so few? Some abstained, although this only helped the government. No doubt many will say they could not go into the lobbies with the Tories. But Labour MPs went into the lobbies with the Tories when they took us to war.

The truth is, those MPs who voted with the government this time have let the anti-war movement, and the majority of their constituents, down. Just like those who voted for war three and a half years ago. Except this time, there really isn't any excuse.

11/01/2006 04:29:00 PM | Permalink