At 18/02/03 11:20 -1000, you wrote:
And another slight bit of evidence:- Bush's studied reluctance in agreeing to seek another UN resolution to help friends and allies - Blair who absolutely needs a second resolution.<Despite the warning, the European declaration was marked most by what it did not say: It set no deadline for the inspections to be called off; it did not commit European countries to using force to back up U.N. resolutions on disarming Iraq; and it did not say Hussein is already in "material breach" of the resolutions.>washingtonpost.com
I would not overestimate this, but it is important to see where governments have to accommodate to mass protest, however minimally.
Blair is extremely resourceful tactically. However the weakness he betrayed in his press conference was his utter conviction that it is inconceivable for Europe and the US not to work together.
He has been pouring over the opinion polls, and thinks and hopes that people in Britain feel rushed. The trouble for him is every time Bush goes on television to rally the US people to war, he turns more Brits off.
Blair's style of politics is to ride consensus, which occasionally can go chaotically wrong for him. Then there is a populist surge of resentment eg voting in Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London, and again the petrol tax protests 2 years ago. During the latter there was a lot of direct action. It is hard to predict now, but the Blair government has few defenses against direct action if it spreads across Britain during an attack on Iraq. The Conservative will neither have the strength nor the least inclination to give him support.
Chris Burford
London
