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The British Labour Party was once counted among the most principled parties in the world. Formed by intellectuals (mainly grouped in the Fabian Society) and trade unionists, it fought for the welfare of the disadvantaged in society.

It helped to build a “welfare state” in which the unemployed were paid a “benefit” so that they wouldn't starve.

The old were given pensions; the sick were looked after in a free “National Health Service”; and houses were built for those who could not pay the high rents charged by house-owners.

Its record in international affairs was also creditable.

Its prominent members included people like Sir Dingle Foot, who defended African nationalist leaders, including Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who fell foul of colonial laws.

Fenner Brockway, a Labour MP, annoyed his fellow Labour Party members in government, by tirelessly questioning their actions in British colonies.

When, in 1956, the then British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, invaded Egypt in collusion with France and Israel, the Labour Party leader, Hugh Gaitskell, refused to accept that the invasion was “in the national interest of Britain” and denounced the invasion.

He helped to torpedo the secret Anglo-French-Israeli design to permanently occupy the Suez Canal zone and reap huge profits on charges levied through controlling the shipping lanes to and from the Middle East.

A decade later, when the United States, under President Lyndon Jonson, wanted Britain to join the US in its aggression against Vietnam, the British Labour Prime Minister of the time, Harold Wilson refused to do so. Wilson became a cropper by failing to quell the rebellion of Ian Smith and his “cowboy cabinet” in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) but his steadfast resistance to the attempt of Lyndon Johnson to co-opt him earned him enormous respect.

But over the years, the Labour Party's original ideals were diluted from within by a succession of leaders who wanted to be second-class Americans.

Jim Callaghan was one of these. But the one who took British subservience to America to another level was Tony Blair.

When Blair got to know that President George W Bush wanted to invade Iraq, Blair immediately constructed a scenario that put Iraq in possession of weapons of mass destruction that could reach Britain “in 45 minutes”.

To prevent Iraq from “firing such weapons at Britain,” Blair joined Bush in raining bombs on Iraq which, according to some estimates, have killed about a million Iraqis — so far.

Blair's lies to Parliament about Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction were patently barefaced. Blair's own intelligence chief reported to him, after a visit to Washington, that the Americans were “fixing the intelligence” to suit decisions already made to invade Iraq.

But Members of Parliament elected on the ticket of the great Labour Party closed their eyes to the evidence and their ears to sensible arguments and allowed Blair to have his way, as Prime Minister, and take Britain into a senseless war.

It was evident that the war would stretch Britain's armed forces and deplete its exchequer.

When Afghanistan was added to the list of the Blair enterprise, one had to pinch oneself to believe that one was seeing reality and not experiencing an incredible nightmare.

It was pathetic to observe the inability of the Parliamentary Labour Party to rein in a man who was intent on robbing Britain of its good name and making dangerous enemies for the peaceful people of the country.

One looked for principled people among the Labour MPs.

When Robin Cook, who had been Blair's Foreign Secretary for some time before being made leader of the House of Commons, resigned in March 2003 in protest against the impending Iraq war, one looked in vain for Labour MPs to troop behind him and force Blair's hand to abandon the invasion.  Continued    Source: Cameron Duodu

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