As opposition grows...
Stop the bombing
by Paul Marsden MP

The widening gap
Jim Mortimer assesses the growing divide between rich and poor in Britain.

The Treasury - Labour's enemy within
All of Britain's economic and social problems can be traced back to the Treasury says Kelvin Hopkins MP.

Stop the Bombing:
Justice cannot come from cluster
bombs and starvation
Diane Abbott MP calls for a
halt to the bombing.

Stop the bombing and
let the aid in
Those who oppose the bombing are not appeasers says Alice Mahon MP

Labour against the war
Alan Simpson MP assesses the
scale of public opposition

Threat to civil liberties
Jeremy Corbyn MP argues that war involves loss of civil liberties and control of the media

Justice for Palestine
is the key
This is the solution for peace
says Neil Gerrard MP

NMD will sharpen
international tensions
The greatest danger, argues Barry Camfield TGWU Assistant General Secretary, is the demand for military solutions

Coalition launched to
'Stop the BNP'
Oldham Cllr Mohammed Azam endorses campaign against BNP

A defining moment for the
peace process
Put crisis politics behind us
urges Gerry Adams MP

A tax for peace
Tax currency speculation and use funds to address poverty says Harry Barnes MP

Tube: don't repeat
Railtrack mistake
PPP will be a disaster for London and the rest of the country argues Mick Rix, ASLEF General Secretary

No one will forget the dreadful pictures of those planes being flown into buildings in the US killing thousands, but unfortunately people have forgotten that last year 300,000 children died in Afghanistan. This year an additional 100,000 children are expected to die as a direct result of the conflict. They will die from poverty, disease and the war. Whether the life is taken in New York or Kabul each one is precious.
It is understandable that people want revenge but it doesn't make it right. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that there are no clear aims to this war other than revenge. The right course of action would be to go back to the United Nations General Assembly to ask the member states for an International Criminal Tribunal to be set up to hear the evidence and indict those responsible for the deaths in the US.
The UN Security Council, based upon those indictments, could then be asked to agree a new resolution to authorise arrest warrants and specific military action to find and attempt to deliver those named to the ICT. In 1945 the UN was formed to preserve international peace and security. Yet it has regularly been sidelined by the rich western countries.
The Prime Minister has accused me of not wanting to engage in a serious debate about the war. I would be happy to meet the Prime Minister any time in any place to debate why the US is dropping cluster bombs that will kill more children than 'terrorists'. I would challenge him over his ignorance of an 'International Court of Justice' not realistically indicting those responsible for the atrocities in America. He is right that the International Court of Justice would be inappropriate. Why? Tony Blair does not seem to appreciate that ICJ is only appropriate for disputes between states, whereas an International Criminal Tribunal is created for trying individuals. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip since the US and British governments skate around proclaiming one minute that the war is against terrorists and the next that it is against the Taliban government.
The reason Tony Blair does not have to worry one jot about the mere details justifying this war is because he can not be held to account for it in parliament. This war has demonstrated again that we have a weak parliament that is dominated by a Prime Minister that retains the full powers of the state through the royal perogative. He can declare war without a motion placed before MPs and he can refuse to allow a vote. His Chief Whip sat in her office and told me with a straight face that war was not a matter of conscience but simply government policy. During the summer recess parliament could not even recall itself without the express permission of the Prime Minister.
Britain needs a written constitution to give parliament the power to check and balance an executive drunk on power. Labour started the process of devolution with a Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies. Now we need to permanently shift power away to local government in England. We need to empower people through better accountability of their MPs and the power to petition parliament, which forces debates and votes on key issues. We can not continue to have a regal Prime Minister and his shadowy courtiers dispensing patronage and power as they see fit.
I urge people to lobby their MPs and to demonstrate peacefully to convince the wider public that this government has to mend its ways.