High ranking and former foreign secretary, Robin Cook quits proclaiming:-
***“I can’t accept collective responsibility for the decision to commit Britain now to military action in Iraq without international agreement or domestic support.” ***
Cook quits over Iraq crisis](BBC NEWS | UK | Politics | Cook quits over Iraq crisis)
ouch.
Cook’s anti-war stance wins ovation, The Guardian, Tom Happold, 17 March 2003
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Mr Cook claimed that Britain was only now going to war "because of some hanging chads in Florida"
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Don't let an American "conservative" hear that! His every word, no matter how rational or factual, will be dismissed out of hand from now on.. They're touchy about that... :)
They will dismiss anything and everything that vaguely appears critical. i think we all tend to hear only what we want to.
The BBC’s online political correspondent, Nick Assinder, calls Cook’s resignation speech “riveting” - a “forensic, line-by-line demolition of the prime minister’s case”.
Blair should fear eloquent Cook, BBC, 17 March 2003
There could have been no more powerful a demonstration of the opposition Tony Blair faces from his own party over his plan to go to war on Iraq.
In a riveting resignation speech to MPs, former cabinet minister Robin Cook attempted a forensic, line-by-line demolition of the prime minister’s case.
And in an unprecedented show of support, his speech was greeted with a highly un-Parliamentary standing ovation and eruption of applause from a large number of Labour backbenchers.
The Commons has never seen anything quite like it and Speaker Michael Martin was forced to demand order as the extraordinary display showed no sign of abating.
This was more like an election speech or a conference performance than a resignation statement. The prime minister, who was not in the chamber, may have felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle as Mr Cook ended with a call for the Commons to stop the war with its vote on Tuesday night. That will not happen. But the anti-war rebels have finally got what they have so far been lacking - a leader with the ability to scare the socks off the prime minister.
And any lingering hopes in Downing Street that the revolt may start to wane were blown away with this single, brief statement.
Robin Cook got an unprecdented standing ovation in the House of Commons after his speech, which ripped into Blair's case for war one by one. The BBC's political editor called it Without doubt one of the most effective brilliant resignation speeches in modern British politics.
Robin Cook’s resignation speech is accessible from the above website (link is to the upper right).
Now another minister goes:-
**Tony Blair was today hit by another resignation from his government over the looming war against Iraq, with junior health minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath announcing he is stepping down… He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I have agonised over this issue for many weeks. But I have decided today to resign from the government because I don’t support the pre-emptive action, which is going to be taken without broad international support or indeed the clear support of the British people.” **](Short remains as resignations mount | Health | The Guardian)
There is very little in the way of principles in politics, and even less common sense.
Robin Cook spoke eloquently for the majority of the world, it was no accident that he got a rare standing ovation in the house of commons.
I have watched the commons debate before, heard speaches before, but last night (just past midnight here) my faith was restored in parliment.
Oops another one just gone;
“A third minister has quit the government over the Iraq crisis as Clare Short announced she would stay in her cabinet job despite earlier threats to resign.
Home Office Minister John Denham has now followed Health Minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath in resigning on Tuesday morning.”
Clare Short has announced that she will not be resigning which is quite a volte face from her outspoken comments last week against Blair.
One MP seems to have other opinions:
March 18, 2003
See men shredded, then say you don’t back war
By Ann Clwyd
“There was a machine designed for shredding plastic. Men were dropped into it and we were again made to watch. Sometimes they went in head first and died quickly. Sometimes they went in feet first and died screaming. It was horrible. I saw 30 people die like this. Their remains would be placed in plastic bags and we were told they would be used as fish food . . . on one occasion, I saw Qusay [President Saddam Hussein’s youngest son] personally supervise these murders.”
This is one of the many witness statements that were taken by researchers from Indict — the organisation I chair — to provide evidence for legal cases against specific Iraqi individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. This account was taken in the past two weeks.
Another witness told us about practices of the security services towards women: “Women were suspended by their hair as their families watched; men were forced to watch as their wives were raped . . . women were suspended by their legs while they were menstruating until their periods were over, a procedure designed to cause humiliation.”
The accounts Indict has heard over the past six years are disgusting and horrifying. Our task is not merely passively to record what we are told but to challenge it as well, so that the evidence we produce is of the highest quality. All witnesses swear that their statements are true and sign them.
For these humanitarian reasons alone, it is essential to liberate the people of Iraq from the regime of Saddam. The 17 UN resolutions passed since 1991 on Iraq include Resolution 688, which calls for an end to repression of Iraqi civilians. It has been ignored. Torture, execution and ethnic-cleansing are everyday life in Saddam’s Iraq.
Were it not for the no-fly zones in the south and north of Iraq — which some people still claim are illegal — the Kurds and the Shia would no doubt still be attacked by Iraqi helicopter gunships.
For more than 20 years, senior Iraqi officials have committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This list includes far more than the gassing of 5,000 in Halabja and other villages in 1988. It includes serial war crimes during the Iran-Iraq war; the genocidal Anfal campaign against the Iraqi Kurds in 1987-88; the invasion of Kuwait and the killing of more than 1,000 Kuwaiti civilians; the violent suppression, which I witnessed, of the 1991 Kurdish uprising that led to 30,000 or more civilian deaths; the draining of the Southern Marshes during the 1990s, which ethnically cleansed thousands of Shias; and the summary executions of thousands of political opponents.
Many Iraqis wonder why the world applauded the military intervention that eventually rescued the Cambodians from Pol Pot and the Ugandans from Idi Amin when these took place without UN help. They ask why the world has ignored the crimes against them?
All these crimes have been recorded in detail by the UN, the US, Kuwaiti, British, Iranian and other Governments and groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Indict. Yet the Security Council has failed to set up a war crimes tribunal on Iraq because of opposition from France, China and Russia. As a result, no Iraqi official has ever been indicted for some of the worst crimes of the 20th century. I have said incessantly that I would have preferred such a tribunal to war. But the time for offering Saddam incentives and more time is over.
I do not have a monopoly on wisdom or morality. But I know one thing. This evil, fascist regime must come to an end. With or without the help of the Security Council, and with or without the backing of the Labour Party in the House of Commons tonight.
The author is Labour MP for Cynon Valley.
Exactly just one MP, while all the time British minsiters resigning one after the other. Now maybe I should pluck out a dissenting comments by one US Congressman and post them as well? 
Yet more resignations:-
Bob Blizzard, Labour MP for Waveney, resigns as Private Parliamentary Secretary to work and pensions minister Nick Brown.
Anne Campbell, Labour MP for Cambridge, resigns from her role as Private Parliamentary Secretary to Patricia Hewitt, secretary of state for trade and industry.
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*Originally posted by Malik73: *
Now maybe I should pluck out a dissenting comments by one US Congressman and post them as well? :)
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Malik you can start with Senator Tom Daschle :D
"Exactly just one MP"
So you are predicting that the measure will not pass?
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Originally posted by Ohioguy:
"Exactly just one MP"
So you are predicting that the measure will not pass?
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If you knew anything about British politics you would not be asking that question? :)
I know exactly what I am asking.
Your implication is that there is only one MP who is for a war with Iraq, and that MP stands alone in isolation. Perhaps you are so into your lefty world, crowing about this minister leaving, or that minister threatening to, that you forget that the measure in front of Parliament will comfortably pass. Political histrionics aside, and showboating for the electorate aside (please do not pretend that politicians do not play to the cameras), the measure will pass comfortably.
Ok, then tell me how many MP’s it takes to rebel against their leader to pose a serious threat to his leadership and premiership, eventually precipitating a leadership challenge and their overthrow? Thank you.
P.S. I love that lefty jibe…if only you knew.
It would take 165 MPs', about 44 more than the last vote before Blair even has to rely on the opposition. A full rebellion will require an additional 124 MP's to vote against.
And I love Mr. Hauge's jab at Calire Short, that he has never seen, "a more spectacular failure to resign".
And your new nick is officially "Lefty". :)
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Originally posted by Ohioguy:
*It would take 165 MPs', about 44 more than the last vote before Blair even has to rely on the opposition. A full rebellion will require an additional 124 MP's to vote against. *
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Hmmm...I don't think you understand my question. How many MP's does it takes to rebel against their leader to pose a serious threat to his leadership and premiership, eventually precipitating a leadership challenge and their overthrow?
Yours
"Lefty" :)
P.S. Iain Duncan Smith isnow the leader of the Tories not William Hague.