Jim Cousins, Labour MP, We Salute You

Mr Cousins, who has represented Newcastle Central as an MP since 1987, voted against the Iraq War and offers a telling insight. “From the autumn of 2001 it was absolutely obvious to me that US president George Bush was going to have an invasion and occupation of Iraq and that Blair would go with it. “And that Blair would in some sense fall in love with the world stage and that is exactly what happened with disastrous results for the Labour party, from which we have actually not recovered and will not recover for a long time to come,” He adds the Iraq War has become a “benchmark” issue in British politics, going beyond just the conflict itself – and revealed he came close to quitting Parliament over it. “It has become a symbol of what kind of country do you live in and what sort of direction do you want it go to in? I found that whole period between 2001 and 2003 utterly depressing. It was like knowing the train was going to crash, there wasn’t much you could do about it. And I make no bones about it, looking back on it now, that if Labour had kept control of Newcastle City Council in 2004, if it had done well in those all-out elections, I would not have stood at the 2005 general election. “I felt very unhappy about the project that I had become part of,” A succinct vignette of just what has happened to the Labour Party. Jim, We at AfghanCentral and Wolves In The City salute your integrity.