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Blair to defy anti-war protests
(Ewen MacAskill and Michael White, The Guardian, February 17, 2003)
Tony Blair refused to blink last night in the face of the biggest anti-war demonstrations ever held in Britain and worldwide. . . . In spite of their bullishness, there were signs that the scale of the protest, combined with the report by the UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, on Friday, has disrupted US and British diplomatic plans. . . . Mr Blair will face calls to give the inspectors more time when he meets the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and the French president, Jacques Chirac, at an EU summit on Iraq in Brussels tonight. The summit was called by Greece, which holds the EU presidency, to try to secure common ground but there was little optimism in London that it would achieve much more than a reiteration of support for existing UN resolutions. . . . The London protest attracted people with an astonishing variety of backgrounds and political viewpoints. The numbers and diversity should be a cause of worry to a prime minister who prides himself on his awareness of public opinion. . . . Mr Blair's ministers insisted public opinion could flip in favour of war, provided there was a second UN resolution. They admitted it would be problematic for Mr Blair's relationship with his party if he failed to secure that. . . . One minister said cabinet resignations were unlikely to extend beyond the leader of the house, Robin Cook, and that while ordinary members would leave the party, he doubted if it would amount to the predicted exodus.

[Comment: A frequent cheer heard at Peace marches was, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Bush and Blair have got to go!" . . . and where should they go? how about sending these chickenhawks to the front lines.]

posted by LoZo 2:59 PM