Yes New Labour got a battering because of the war. Perhaps as it should be every time our country goes to war. Maybe we need to remind those who govern us that war is not just something we can be "persuaded" to support.

However, the war aside, what fasinated me was the constant vilification dished out to Tony Blair. I read the Daily Mail as my partner buys it and day after day they published the most vicious articles I've ever read. The personal attacks in the Dail Mail co-incided with Michael Howard's bitter personal attacks and Howard's constant repeated references to Blair's "lying".
I notice that several top Conservatives were against this "lying" strategy because it was wrong, it played against Howard and it introduced a type of yob politics and disrespect hitherto unknown in this country.
We can only hope that the new Conservative leadership never again employs Lynton Crosby and that the Daily Mail immolates itself in a fury of its own self-righteous propaganda.