…bravely and in the teeth of exactly the sort of opposition that would make most leaders tremble and collapse, stood his ground and did what he believed was right and just and good for the world in Iraq. It’s fine for Andrew Stuttaford to oppose Blair on the grounds that he has been, domestically, a disaster for Britain. He knows that better than I, though it seems to me that the strength of the British economy for the past eight years can’t just be happenstance. No matter. The kind of disgusting character assassination Stuttaford just quoted is beyond the bounds of what is remotely acceptable intellectually or as a matter of simple decency. It’s a disfiguring sort of hatred, like Bush hatred, and it’s just as appalling.