When is a war a ‘just war’? According to the classic definition, one of the key criteria is that war is not waged lightly: going to war has to be the ‘last resort’.

But it can be tricky to tell when you’ve reached the ‘last resort’, or the last of anything; you could easily jump too soon, or else wait too long and miss it altogether. Think of Father Ted Read More

So, Blair’s responded to the May 5th result by announcing his intention to move yet further Right, and backed it up with new Cabinet appointments. Which is disappointing in itself, as well as representing two fingers to all those of us who chose left-wing alternatives to Labour. Given the scale of the left-alternative diaspora and the insignificance of the swing from Labour to the Conservatives, this response also makes very little sense in terms of political rationality (as I wrote here). That said, it does have a certain ghastly predictability within the Blairoverse. Poach Tory votes and drag the Labour vote along behind: that’s how the New Labour clique work. Unfortunately for us, May 5 didn’t see them leaving quite enough of the Labour vote behind to slow down the march into Tory territory.

What’s interesting – and, I think, revealing – is how New Labour are moving right. Read More

Or: Tony Blair and our relation to his unconscious.

Old German joke, as retold by Sigmund Freud. A man borrows a kettle from his neighbour. When he returns it, the neighbour complains that it’s got a hole in it. Don’t look at me, says our man, I never borrowed your kettle. Besides, it was fine when I gave it back to you. I wish I’d never borrowed it anyway – it’s useless, it’s got a great big hole in it.

In other words, Don’t blame me, I wasn’t there. Well, OK, I was there, but nothing went wrong. Well, maybe something did go wrong, but it was nothing to do with me…

In three words: deny, deny, deny. It wasn’t me.

Martin Kettle Read More

How can you have an election where nobody wins?

Obviously the Tories are the worst losers. If I were a Conservative voter, I’d be really worried about the state of the party. For as long as I can remember, it’s been a good rule of thumb that when Labour were in trouble, the Tories would be the first to benefit, and vice versa. Ironically, during the only period when this wasn’t true – the Alliance surge of the early 1980s – the electoral system made it come true anyway, converting Labour losses to the Alliance into Tory gains. This time round, it looks rather different. Read More