It would appear that for some Labour MPs (17 so far) enough is enough. In an act of defiance they have decided that the issue of Tony Blair's trustworthiness over Iraq is so significant that they are making their continued opposition to the war an election issue. The group of MPs is calling itself Labour Against The War, and has recognised that one of the most significant election issues will be Iraq and Tony Blair's handling of the whole issue.

The full story can be found in today's Independant, which also highlights a counter-weight group from within the Labour Party. Yet interestingly, the Labour Friends Of Iraq is focussing on the need to sort out the mess Bush and Blair have made, and does not support Blair's original decision to invade Iraq in support of Bush.

So on this matter alone the Labour Party is falling into several camps:

1. Labour Against The War - believes the invasion was wrong and occupying troops should be removed as soon as possible.
2. Labour Friends Of Iraq - believes that regardless of the rights or wrongs of the invasion, we've made the mess and should stay to clear it up.
3. Anti-War MPs - candidates such as Des Turner who has made a statement on his website confirming his opposition to the war.
4. Sycophantic Blairites - MPs and candidates who believe that we should move on from Iraq.

We'll publish the list of MPs supporting Labour Against The War shortly, but you shouldn't assume that simply because they're anti-war they are deserving of your support. We'll be checking their voting records first.

Thanks to http://www.perfect.co.uk/ for the link.

If you're concerned about the rising cost of ink cartridges (or you want to be more direct with people), then we have a new poster especially for you available for download on the Posters page.

It goes by the name 'Political Debate' and it has some very, very rude words in it. If you're at work, you may wish to use headphones.

This campaign has been wrongly accused of taking a number of different positions, including being pro-Tory,pro-Respect and pro-War in Iraq. Which is a pretty impressive spread for a campaign that is actually anti-Blair (and anti-New Labour project).

Some of the other tactical voting campaigns are focussed specifically on the Iraq War, aiming to punish MPs who voted in favour of military action. Now that is a laudable object and is one of the factors we are using to revise the voting advice given. However, it isn't the complete picture. When considering the performance of a Labour MP over the lifetime of the current parliament, other issues need to be considered including (in no particular order):

- The Anti-Terrorism legislation
- Trial without jury
- Reform of the House of Lords
- Foundation Hospitals
- ID Cards
- Student top-up fees

Depressingly, when looking at Labour MPs, we find only 17 who voted against the government on at least 75% of the divisions associated with the above issues. Now obviously this list will expand when prioritisation is taken into account e.g. Iraq ranks higher than reform of the House of Lords. Even so, only 17 Labour MPs out of 412 voted consistently against the more right-wing of the governments policies.

Even more depressing is the sheer contempt Tony Blair appears to hold for parliament. Out of 71 votes on these key issues, Blair didn't even vote in 44 of them, illustrating the arrogance of a Prime Minister with such an overwhelming majority that he does not feel the need to vote on his own key legislation.

So, at the end of the day, Backing Blair is about punishing Tony Blair and those Labour MPs who slavishly support his right-of-centre policies. And at the same time rewarding those Labour MPs who appear to have retain at least a reasonable sense of what the party should stand for. A case in point being Mike Wood, Labour MP for Batley and Spen. If we were truly anti-Labour then we'd be throwing our weight behind the Conservative candidate Robert Light, especially given Mike Wood's fragile majority. But we're not. Instead we're urging voters in Batley and Spen to vote for Mike, to ensure that the more principled anti-Blairites survive.

This is all beginning to look a bit messy. On Friday it was announced that ex-MI5 agent David Shayler was going to stand as an independant candidate in Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency. Now Reg Keys, the father of Military Policeman Thomas Keys who was murdered in Iraq, also intends standing against Blair.

This is a potential nightmare scenario, with the risk of the anti-Blair vote being split a myriad ways when ideally we would like to see a straight-forward head-to-head contest between Blair and a non-partisan independant candidate.

A better target for Reg Keys would surely be Geoff Hoon. While his majority in 2001 was 13,268 (33%), this is a more attainable target than unseating Blair who had a majority of 17,713 (44%) in 2001.

If anyone has any contact details for the Keys' Campaign, could they please pass them on in order that we can try and get the involved parties to address this matter.

BBC - Ex-MI5 agent David Shayler is to stand against Tony Blair, in his Sedgefield constituency, at the general election.

David Shayler will make an excellent independant candidate. In addition to his understanding of the way the intelligence services operate and his public profile, David is almost a local lad, hailing from Middlesbrough. We'd ask everyine to get behind is candidature and give him all the support we can.

Backing Blair has received a communication from Westminster City Council regarding fly-posting and the placing of stickers in public places.

The relevant section of law raised is Section 132 of the Highways Act 1980, and an Council spokesperson said that...

we regard these stickers going onto street furniture as an offence under the aforementioned Act.

... and that...

We enforce this legislation regardless of its content, as it is all "litter", and defacement.

So please be aware of this fact.

Some spiffy new posters now available on the posterspage. We know that many of you are put off by the volume of black ink consumed when printing them. If enough people leave a comment indicating whether or not they'd be willing to pay for posters (in much the same way as stickers), then we'll give it some consideration. Also let us know how much you'd consider reasonable to pay for posters in various sizes (A4, A3, etc).

Guardian - Voters want MPs who know their own minds. New Labour doesn't: Someone, somewhere - perhaps in Downing Street, the Labour whips office, around Gordon Brown or in the parliamentary party - will have done the sums. The tipping point for Tony Blair and possibly for the New Labour project will be decided by the size of any majority in the forthcoming general election. Much under 60 and Tony Blair's nightmare becomes a reality: for his majority will then be made up of the leftwing Campaign Group MPs, aggrieved former ministers and the awkward squad. The prime minister's promised "unremittingly New Labour" programme will suffer the attrition of a hundred compromises, retreats and defeats. In truth, this is what a powerful cross-section of the Labour movement is secretly hoping for. For it may be the last chance to save the Labour party for social democracy and from remorseless internal collapse. But here is the rub, and it goes to the core of the malaise that has afflicted Labour for the best part of 10 years. It was made very plain to Roy Hattersley by two Blairite MPs who recently informed him: "We have worked very hard to get the right people." What they meant was that, by fair means or foul, they have managed to get as many parliamentary candidates of their persuasion in place as possible. Due process and fair play take second place when the task of the party apparatus is to deliver a parliamentary party in the image of its leader and so save him the embarrassment of having to argue and negotiate.

Backing Blair T-shirts, baseball shirts, hoodis, mugs and mousemats are now available. Wear them with pride (well, not the mugs or mousemats obviously) and spread the word.

Details can be found on the T-Shirts page or you can click here to go to the Backing Blair store.

All profits go into the Backing Blair fund to support the campaign.