TONY JUST STOPPED LISTENING

Jun 24 2007

WE don't like to say we told you so, Tony, but...

Five years ago, we warned the Prime Minister it would be mad to join America in invading Iraq.

On September 1, 2002, we wrote: "Blair's political epitaph could be written in the blood of millions of innocent people."

But Tony Blair didn't listen. Not to us, not to the million people who took part in the Stop the War march, not to other world leaders.

The Iraq war is now a stain on his reputation he can never remove, no matter how hard he scrubs.

He would have been our greatest prime minister... but suddenly he stopped listening and fell out of step with the people he served.

He talked of "tough" decisions which, in fact, were wrong decisions.

We would like to remember the younger Blair who, fresh-faced and optimistic, delivered us from the sleazy Tories in 1997.

From a Scottish perspective, he brought an end to the era of Westminster governments treating us like a colonial backwater when he delivered devolution.

Of course, he never intended it to deliver an SNP government.

And his foreign policy record isn't all bad. While other leaders did nothing, he showed judgment and bravery when he intervened in Kosovo and Sierra Leone.

Brown now has an opportunity to wipe away the stain of Iraq and rebuild our reputation as honest brokers in conflict zones.

And he can show that, even with an SNP government in Scotland, he can work with parties of all shades.

Labour's campaign song 10 years ago was Things Can Only Get Better.

Under Blair, they did for a while.

Now under Brown it's time for a chorus of All Together Now.

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