Here's what I don't get about the whole Blair hatred thing from the left

[Burney]

Fair point about the Lib Dems in that election. They did say "Iraq War: Never again" in their manifesto and their share of the vote went up 4% from 2001 and got 10 more seats. New Labour's share went down 5.5%. Tories vote was about the same. So it looks like significant numbers did move away from Blair to the Lib Dems (and Greens).

I think a more relevant criticism is not of members of the public who may have voted Labour despite opposing the war, (and as you will agree, people vote on a package of policies) but of the political class who went with it at the time, and are now hiding behing the cartoonish image of Blair the Monster. It's not as if he invoked the Royal Prerogative like in 99. He won a vote in the commons, despite the case being so obviously bull****. Are all the MPs who backed him going to get a public thrashing too?

Of course not. He was the figurehead and the leader, so he takes the thrashing. The rest can say they were following orders.

I'm not disputing that some people did move away from Labour, I'm pointing out that many more didn't and wondering how they can reconcile that fact (of putting Blair back in office) with their moral conscience. Of course people vote on a package of policies, but it seems reasonable to me to expect that someone who feels as strongly about this issue as many of those now lining up to kick Blair profess to would then refuse to vote him back in. Now I have no issue with people voting for their interests, the economy or any number of other issues, but I do take the view that once you do so in favour of someone like Blair, you are essentially placing those things over and above your moral objections to the war he started and do ever so slightly lose the moral high ground when it comes to criticising him later.