Airstrip One

A Tory MP thinks, shock

Peter Ainsworth dares to speak out against his party's unreflective support for Blair on Iraq:

I was brought up to believe that foreign policy should ultimately be determined by the national interest. If Tony Blair has reason to believe that Iraq is on the point of attacking the United Kingdom, then most people would willingly see the armed forces give him all they’ve got. But most people are not convinced. They wonder why, if Iraq poses such an obvious and immediate threat to stability and security in Europe, the Germans and French are prepared to be so laid-back. They wonder why most of Iraq’s neighbours have not signed up to war, when they did in 1991. They wonder what has changed recently to make an attack inevitable. They wonder why now. And they wonder whether Mr Blair’s stance is determined less by the national interest than by a personal interest in strutting the world stage.