Blair's carefully stage managed party conference ended in uproar as overzealous goons swooped down on Walter Wolfgang, one of the absolute leading lights of the UK progressive movement, when the 82 year old shouted "Nonsense!" as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was trying to explain why the U.K. were in Iraq.
Walter Wolfgang, who escaped Nazi Germany, only to return twice as a teenager on intelligence missions during the war, is a founding member of the U.K. anti-nuclear movement, and a solid stalwarth for the Labour cause.
He was nothing but contempt for Tony Blair, whom he considers a "Tory in disguise", and he is adamant that the U.K. is kow-towing to U.S. interests in Iraq.
Blair got an absolutely disastrous ending to his conference, when Wolfgang was ejected and threatened with prosecution under the anti-terrorist act. A furore ensued and Blair had to prostrate himself and offer apologies, as incensed delegates supported Wolfgang.
We have been lied to about the war. But not only that. The party has been manipulated so that it has not been allowed to discuss the issue properly.
Indeed, the Labour leaders have got so nervous of criticism that when I shouted the single word "nonsense"- when the Foreign Secretary sought to paper over the issue with smooth words - party officials sent the bouncers in. Even one word of criticism, it seems, was too much.
In an eloquent explanation in today's The Independent, Walter Wolfgang explains why he simply had to protest, as Jack Straw kept spouting inanities about Kosovo and Iraq. Wolfgang feels the war in Iraq is a complete disaster, unnecessary and uncalled for. Blair served petty U.S. ends in joining this war, and Wolfgang fears for the consequences, as it dawns on people how they were lied to by their government, in order to support the war.
Walter Wolfgang in The Independent
Tony Blair is the worst leader the Labour Party has ever had, Ramsay Macdonald included. Mr Blair's instincts are basically those of a Tory. He picked up this cause from the Americans without even analysing it. I suspect that he is too theatrical even to realise that he is lying.
Walter Wolfgang has unmatched moral authority in the Labour movement, and the outrage was complete when delegates understood how Blair's goons had treated him. Wolfgang himself states that previous Labour party conferences used to be free for exchanges of ideas and opinions, while Blair's recent appearances have been carefully managed, undemocratic events that prevented free speech and expression. Should ring a bell with Americans wondering why they can't get close to any venue containing an administration representative if they hold a viewpoint opposite to party cant.
We simply have to realize that we are slowly drifting into a politics that is not very different from totalitarian rule. In Wolfgang's words:
The war was simply unnecessary. It was done in support of the United States.
It has brought us to a turning point in history. When I was a child living in Germany in the late 1930s, with relatives who died in the concentration camps, things were very frightening. But the policy of the American government today frightens me too. And so does the attitude of the British Government.
Power corrupts, it is said, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely. This is increasingly clear in our post-Cold War era. There is today only one superpower and therefore that superpower has to be restrained by the good advice of its allies. But what Tony Blair has done is the opposite. He has confirmed the prejudices of George Bush, making it much harder for a superpower to get out of its bad habits.
Spinmeisters try to blame underlings, as Blair leads the cadres apologizing