Bigley's death a blow for Blair

2004-10-09 17:11

London - The killing of hostage Kenneth Bigley is a blow for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who - with a general election likely in early 2005 - has been struggling to escape the long shadow of Iraq.

Like a never-ending nightmare, Iraq keeps coming back to haunt the prime minister, who came to power in 1997, was re-elected with a big Labour majority in 2001, and is likely to call Britons to the polls in spring 2005.

Earlier in the week he had to face up to the findings of the Iraq Survey Group, which concluded that after 18 months of searching, it could not find any of Saddam Hussein's dreaded weapons of mass destruction.

Bigley, 62, an engineer from Liverpool who was looking forward to retirement with his young Thai wife, was not the first British hostage in Iraq. But he was the first to die, and his plight was front-page news for many days.

The prime minister was in his country retreat Chequers, northwest of London, when the news of Bigley's execution - three weeks after his abduction in Baghdad - emerged.

He had only just returned from a trip to Sudan and Ethiopia focusing on ways to pull Africa out of chronic poverty and conflict - a pet theme of next year's British presidencies of the Group of Eight and the European Union.

The previous week Blair sought to pull the spotlight back onto domestic issues like health and education at Labour's annual conference, where delegates still forced a debate on Iraq.

Blair not sorry for overthrowing Saddam

A conference motion to demand a date for the pullout of British troops in Iraq failed to pass, but only after Blair's team scrambled to secure the support of trade unions, a big voting bloc at Labour conclaves.

Blair for his part apologised for the lapse in accurate intelligence on Saddam's arsenal, but insisted he cannot say sorry for helping to overthrow the Iraqi tyrant.

The British parliament gets back to work on Monday in London after a three-week conference break, and Blair's weekly question period on Wednesday is likely to be peppered with pointed jabs about Iraq.

The anti-war Liberal Democrats, sensing that more and more voters are swinging to its side, will no doubt hammer at Blair's unwavering alliance with the Bush administration on Iraq.

The main opposition Conservatives, which backed the Iraq war, will meanwhile bring up the question of trust, arguing that Blair took Britain into the conflict on false premises.

"When parliament reconvenes on Monday ... we can expect pointed questions about the late Mr Bigley, about the security situation in Iraq and about the ISG report," the Independent newspaper said on Saturday in an editorial.

"Our elected representatives should not hold back."

- SAPA