Tariq Ali

Blair has led this country into more wars than Thatcher and Major combined. He is responsible for more deaths, and that with fewer popular votes to back him. In 1992, the year Neil Kinnock was defeated by John Major, the Labour vote was 11.5 million. In 2001 New Labour’s indecent majority was based on a popular vote of 10.7 million. Turnout had dropped from 71 per cent in 1997 to 59 per cent in 2001. Gordon Brown provided a hallucinatory explanation: people were so relaxed and happy under New Labour that they couldn’t be bothered to vote. Psephology beckons, Gordon. In reality, it was the collapse of the Tories that distorted the results. New Labour’s massive majorities have been based on mass abstentions and a blatantly undemocratic electoral system. New Labour’s redistribution of wealth has favoured the wealthy. The assault on civil liberties mounted by Blair, Blunkett and Clarke is far more serious than the appalling internment without trial that Edward Heath instituted in Ireland. So, in constituencies where there are MPs belonging to the anti-war faction, we should vote for them – despite disagreements on many other issues. In the warmonger constituencies we should vote tactically. I intend to do so. In my north London constituency the MP is Barbara Roche: pro-war and pro everything else this wretched government has done. I don’t simply want to vote against her. I want her to be defeated. That is why I will vote Lib Dem.

Punish the warmongers: vote Lib Dem
Tariq Ali
The Red Pepper
April 2005