Portside

Benn stood by his principles, even when they were damaging to his career and his party’s electoral ambitions. “Charming, persuasive and sometimes deeply frustrating,” is how former British Home Secretary David Blunkett described him to The Independent newspaper. “[But] what you would learn from Tony Benn was to think for yourself.”

Last night David Cameron’s government lost a House of Commons vote on a measure designed to approve—-in principle-—military action in Iraq pending a report from UN weapons inspectors. This was the first defeat of a government motion related to military action in modern times. The UK Parliament voted—-what about US Congress?