Airstrip One

Where did they all come from?

750 000, almost twice the size of the Countryside Alliance march. Not bad at all. It may be a comment on this supposedly dull government that it's now provoked the three biggest demonstrations in British history.

David Carr thinks that it's just a day out for the left. Now I've been to left wing demos in the past and they never get numbers out like this. They've touched a nerve here.

However the guess in this tiny enclave of cynicism is that it won't last. The problem is the UN. The Security Council won't wear it. After all France is agin and Russia sceptical. And we know how hard those two countries are to buy off. Even if these two paladins of virtue were bought off we have steadfast upholders of international law to build a blocking majority, such as Guinea and Angola.

So what happens if there is a UN stitch up? Do the anti-war types now say that this is a good idea because the UN say it is? Or do they point to the undoubted fact that the Security Council vpte is a stitch up and say that although they did argue that the UN was vital before now but now can be opposed. Can you imagine Blair with this gift? "Look, I fully respect their point of view, but we are, with the Americans, doing what they said they wanted. They said that the UN needed to be respected, and we are respecting the decision of the UN. Saddam isn't."

Here at Airstrip One we have been offering an alternate narrative for the anti-interventionist crowd. Iraq's not our business, Saddam's weapon's can't reach us and if the Iraqis hate their regime it's up to them to change it. It may not be romantic, but it can't be wrong footed by a rigged security council vote, a dubious chemical plant or some Iraqi ex-pat.

Of course the antiwar movement would spurn this advice, if they even knew where to find us.