THERE is precious little Tony Blair can control about Prime Minister’s Questions except its timing. So, when he chose yesterday to talk past the 12:30pm deadline of his mandatory 30-minute slot, it was clear he was in deep trouble.
As the weekly set-piece drew to its close, MPs were baying at the Prime Minister.
As he tried to defend government policy on Iraq, Mr Blair for once seemed to lack even physical stature. As he thumped his hands in indignation on the despatch box, the Commons was transformed into a bear pit.
It was a back-bench Labour MP who dealt the coup de grace. Lynne Jones, a member of Greenpeace and CND as well as the member for Birmingham Selly Oak, rose to ask why Iraq had only become a threat following President George Bush’s "axis of evil" speech identifying rogue states?. Was he not considered a threat when Labour first came to power?.
Appearing piqued, Mr Blair told her: "The fact is, way before the axis of evil speech, at the very first meeting I had with President Bush back in February 2001, I said that weapons of mass destruction are an issue and we have to confront them. After 11 September, in this House ... I said that this was the issue that was even more important to deal with."
Two weeks ago, in the same place and at the same event, the Prime Minister put on a performance worthy of an Oscar as he defended his hawkish stance on Iraq.
Yesterday, surely, left Mr Blair with no other impression than he was losing the battle for public opinion.
As he ended the question time anti-war MPs barracked him.
The rule of thumb is to ignore sedentary comments, but when Diane Abbott, the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, bellowed from the benches: "Who’s next?" the Prime Minister appeared to snap.
Rounding on his critic, Mr Blair appeared to give his game plan away.
He told the jeering throng: "After we deal with Iraq we do, yes, through the United Nations, have to confront North Korea about its weapons programme."
Alex Salmond, the former leader of the Scottish National Party, shouted: "When do we stop?". Incredibly, Mr Blair took him on and retorted: "We stop when the threat to our security is properly and fully dealt with."
That a seasoned Commons performer such as Mr Blair was drawn into such exchanges by opposition hecklers and digs by his own back- benchers showed how rattled he is on Iraq.
Alastair Campbell will have to think long and hard before the Speaker calls for questions to the Prime Minister next Wednesday. Same time, same place.
I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka "Christians," and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or "PPs."
What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!
I have read most of Vonnegut and consider Slaughterhouse-Five and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater two of the best novels of the last century. Like his Mother Night these are examininations of modern morality which should be required reading in high school or college. Mother Night also has a lesson that applies now: Be careful who you pretend to be because we all are who we're pretending to be.
This is much better than the cynical and anti-liberal message in Slaughterhouse Five (link is to very good movie) where the Tralfamadorians teach Billy Pilgrim that "it is pointless to be concerned with the bad things that always happen, it is better to only focus one's attention on the good moments, for no moments are capable of being changed."