Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

VOTE!

Dannyboy | 25.04.2003 16:42

Mayday on its way, now is the time to vote out the pro-war MPs.

Lets send a message to Blair and his bloodthirsty gang - if your MP voted for the war, its time you utilised your own vote to get them out of government!

 http://politics.guardian.co.uk/commons/story/0,9061,917507,00.html

Labour MPs who rebelled in February but voted with the government last night:

Jim Cunningham, Jeff Ennis (PPS to Tessa Jowell), Chris Mole and Paul Stinchcome.

Labour MPs who rebelled in February but didn't vote last night:

Colin Challen, Brian Donohoe, Paul Farrelly, Khalid Mahmood, David Marshall, Andrew Reed (r) Dennis Skinner (in hospital) and Brian White.

Labour MP Anne Begg rebelled in February and voted against the government motion last night - she abstained on the amendment.

Labour MPs who rebelled for the first time last night:

Bob Blizzard (r), Keith Bradley, Kevin Brennan, Anne Campbell (r), Michael Connarty, Frank Cook, Robin Cook (r), David Crausby Ian Davidson, John Denham (r), Parmjit Dhanda, Bill Etherington, Win Griffiths, John Grogan, Dai Havard, Stephen Hepburn, David Heyes, Joan Humble, David Kidney (r), Tony Lloyd, Ian Lucas, Eric Martlew, Chris Mullin, Gwyn Prosser, Ken Purchase (r), John Robertson, Graham Stringer, Alan Whitehead and David Wright.

· (r) marks out MPs who resigned over the Iraq issue

In their own words

Brian Donohoe
"I took a principled position three weeks ago that I wouldn't support military action against Iraq without UN authorisation. Since then circumstances have changed - President Chirac has threatened to unconditionally veto a second resolution, whatever its wording, while yesterday France offered to commit troops to the Gulf if Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction.

"The prime minister, who has worked his butt off in the last few weeks, also gave a convincing performance. I could not vote for a situation where the troops in the Gulf had to be stood down for an inordinate amount of time. I therefore decided to abstain on the amendment."

Paul Stinchcome
"Three weeks ago I voted for the government motion because I believed that this was Saddam's last chance to comply with UN resolutions. I also voted for the amendment to that motion because Saddam had to be given the chance to take advantage of the opportunity to comply.

"As long as he still had time to comply the time for war had not yet come. Since then, however, the world has moved on - diplomacy has failed and the US has decided that it is going to war.

"The question before the House of Commons was not whether we could stop war but whether we should let America go it alone. I have no doubt at all that the world will be a safer place if we do not leave America to its unilateral devices."

Brian White
"Three weeks ago was first time I ever voted against a whip and it was very hard for me to oppose my government. I wasn't convinced that all diplomatic efforts were exhausted.

"Yesterday I veered between voting for the amendment and abstaining. I decided to abstain in the end because of the way the size of the rebellion was being used to attack the prime minister. Once the amendment had been lost I supported the motion because I think it is important to send a message to our troops that we support them."

Jeff Ennis
"I voted against the government for the first time three week ago because I was worried that the UN might in future be sidelined and concerned that military action might have a detrimental knock on effect in the rest of the Middle East, particular in Israel and Palestine.

"Yesterday I voted with the government because its motion answered both my concerns. It included a role for the UN in post-war Iraq and stressed the importance of the "road map" for a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Obviously a second resolution would have been preferable."

Khalid Mahmood
"On the first Iraq debate held in February I voted for an amendment contrary to the government resolution, as at that time I did not feel that the peace diplomatic route had been properly exhausted. Many of us had hoped that we could continue with United Nations diplomacy.

"The British government, and in particular the prime minister, did its very best to get this matter to the UN for a further resolution. Regrettably, without even seeing the text of any such resolution President Chirac made it clear that come what may his country would veto any further resolution and as a result it prevented any further discussion leading to a further resolution at the UN.

"It is of course true that many permanent members of the security council have in the past used their veto, including the United Kingdom, however this has always been after listening to the arguments rather than in advance, thus preventing any further sensible diplomacy from being used.

"I deeply regret that conflict with Iraq is now imminent and I can only hope and pray that this action will be quick and with as few casualties as possible and that the Iraqi people can after a quarter of a century return to some kind of normal life."

Dannyboy

Comments

Display the following 9 comments

  1. Errr... — Brian
  2. Don't vote — ram
  3. starving — yeah right
  4. yeah right — Brian
  5. dont vote for any — dh
  6. spoiling spoils nothing — peoplewhohatepeople
  7. elections — heather
  8. fuck the vote — krop
  9. erm but — awake
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech