Friday 31 January 2003

A Leader Who Has Left Behind His People

Tony Blair has never been so isolated. The politician who - more than any other of his generation - seemed to have a knack for sensing the public mood, seems woefully out of touch.

Today he wakes up as President Bush's guest in America to learn that he has left his people behind - and not just geographically.

Today's ICM/Mirror poll reveals that he and the British people now stand an ocean apart on the great question of our time: whether to fight a war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

For months now, and with extra intensity these last few weeks, Mr Blair has made the case for military action.

The Prime Minister has published a dossier of evidence, invoked the bitter memory of September 11, and deployed all his rhetorical gifts to persuade us Saddam is a clear and present danger to Britain and the world.

He has urged us to act now - before it's too late.

Yet he has failed: we are not persuaded. The numbers could not be more damning. Just two per cent of us - a figure no bigger than the poll's margin of error - believe that an attack on Iraq will make us safer.

Full story...