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As many of our British members will recall, New Labour was not totally popular with elements of the base due to the revisions made to Clause IV, the continuation of the Thatcher reforms and what was seen as "killing" the soul of the Labour Party to some which resulted to opposition to the modernisation of the party and also to many aspects of the New Labour reforms to things such as welfare and increasing police powers but opposition was always somewhat low-key until the NATO intervention into Afghanistan, which created the starts of opposition but still a small minority, but it soon heavily increased with Britain joining the Iraq War and the subsequent security measures after both events.

The intervention into Iraq was partly what strengthened the anti-Blair faction and damaged the brand even now to some while the security measures were seen as too authoritarian, increasing powers was already being done before Iraq but the pace heavily increased after that as did the pace of opposition from many left wing Labour MPs. However, what I am asking is how the left wing opposition could have developed without 9/11, the War on Terror and Iraq, there were still signs of discontent in elements of the left of the party, going by The Tony Benn Diaries, but how could it have increased as time went on.

Without Iraq, Brown loses much of his ability to stay in the government and derail some of the New Labour reforms due to his own popularity but without Iraq he may find himself losing many powers if not reshuffled which could increase anger against Blair from some Brownites and the opposing elements would soon organise at some point, in my opinion, so how would they evolve, especially if someone like Alan Miliburn succeeds Blair or he stays on for who knows how long?
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