A ferocious row

(Above) window of a political bookshop close to St Martins Lane.

There has been a ferocious row, staged as a public debate in New York, between George Galloway MP and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The shouting match was reported gleefully on the Today Programme, reviewed in the national press, and broadcast on Radio 4 over the weekend. George Galloway seems to be the only politician to effectively challenge the Government over its policy in Iraq.

Public opposition to the war has become increasingly muted since the general election. People seem bored by the whole issue. Even maverick Ken Livingstone would rather talk about cricket and the Olympics.

The Falklands war in 1981, the first Gulf war in 1991, the second Gulf war in 2003 - every ten years or so the United Kingdom has been involved in a reasonably large military conflict. Alan Nixon believes that the political elite (both major parties) has, covertly and without public debate, adopted a Nietzschean policy which regards war as the option of choice in international affairs (the power of war as an impetus to economic activity, the power of war as a counter to social decadence, the role of war in the definition of political supermen and superwomen etc etc).