Jack Straw: The Ultimate New Labour Politician

He’s the man who managed to be the campaign manager to Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown. Just after the election-that-never-was in 2007 he let it be known that he had counselled against a snap election. Now the Sunday Times publishes the memo he sent to Tony Blair suggesting that the war might turn out to be a bad idea. Jack Straw: the man who always covers his back. In fact, Straw let the existence of this memo be known shortly after the war turned nasty. I considered it common knowledge when I wrote about it in 2007 and I’m pretty sure John Kampfner talked about it in his book Blair’s Wars.

The point is that Straw expressed serious doubts a year before the outbreak of war, but still continued to support the intervention. It is difficult to understand what allowed him to set aside his concerns beyond pure political ambition.