THE BELL is tolling for Tony Blair. We are two weeks away from the 10 June elections, which should seal the fate of the liar who took us into this disastrous war and occupation. We have marched in our millions against this criminal attack on the Iraqi people. Now we have to vote in this referendum on Blair, his war and his Tory policies. Never before has the future of a British prime minister rested on an election which usually passes most people by.
IT'S NOT only the prospect of an abysmal result on 10 June that has New Labour worried. The biggest industrial confrontation under Blair has returned, as firefighters refuse to cave in to a government-inspired bosses' offensive. A panicky editorial in the Financial Times on Monday warned against employers making any concessions.
TONY BLAIR is drowning. As the seas rise to swallow him up he tries in vain, like King Canute, to turn back the tide. Two weeks ago a panicked Blair invited senior journalists from the Guardian newspaper to a cosy chat at his Chequers country residence. The journalists included Martin Kettle, a personal friend of Blair.
US POLICY in Iraq is in meltdown. The pictures of torture by US and British forces in Iraq have underlined graphically that this is a war of terror, not a war on terror.
THE WORLD has seen US troops' torture of Iraqi prisoners. These pictures have smashed the last excuse trotted out to justify the occupation of Iraq. As resistance to the occupation grew, apologists for imperialism clutched desperately at the idea that at least human rights would be better with Saddam Hussein gone.
'DOOMED TO failure.\" That was the conclusion of 52 ambassadors and top officials in a letter to Tony Blair slamming his relationship with Bush and his policies on Iraq and Palestine. These officials come from one of the most privileged and loyal layers of the British establishment.
TONY BLAIR has faced another stark choice over the last few days. He could stick with his fellow war criminal George Bush and slide deeper into the blood and horror of Iraq. Or he could follow the Spanish government and withdraw troops as quickly as possible.
\"WERE WE to fail it is more than 'the power of America' that would be defeated,\" Tony Blair said last weekend. \"The hope of freedom and religious tolerance in Iraq would be snuffed out. Dictators would rejoice. Fanatics and terrorists would be triumphant.\"
THE BIGGEST single group of people who suffered repression under Saddam Hussein's regime are in revolt against the US occupation. And George Bush's only answer to the Shia uprising is to act in the same brutal fashion as the government that was toppled a year ago.
NEW LABOUR ministers have poured fuel on the fire of racism with their lies about asylum seekers. They branded refugees and migrant workers a "problem" and a "drain on resources". It should come as no surprise to them when they get their fingers burnt. The Tories and right wing press have gleefully seized on the issue of asylum to attack New Labour, calling for immigration minister Beverley Hughes to resign.
WE WOULD all like to wipe the smile off Tony Blair's face. Last Saturday's demonstration showed that the massive anger over the war on Iraq has not gone away.
THE WORLD will be a safer place," foreign secretary Jack Straw told parliament two days before the war on Iraq. "Iraq", Tony Blair said in the same debate, "will be the test of whether we take the threat of terrorism seriously." A year later at least 15,000 Iraqis have lost their lives in this "test", each one dying as horribly as the 200 people blown to pieces in Madrid last week.
