War

Competing historical mythologies underpin the British left's spats over Russia's invasion. As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named 'Stop ...

Does it involve economic sanctions (that have civilian victims) and the sending of weapons to a warzone, coordinated through an inherited Atlantic alliance that has its own murky history? Attlee became Labour leader in 1935 after his ally Ernest Bevin publicly savaged Attlee’s predecessor, George Lansbury, for ‘hawking his conscience’ by refusing to impose sanctions on the Italian fascist Mussolini after his invasion of Ethiopia. Putin’s own invasion makes it burningly relevant today. On the surface, this was a policy dispute over the UK’s diplomatic and military response to the emerging Russian-Ukrainian crisis. In the build up to Russia’s invasion, the government took a tough rhetorical stance against Putin and imposed sanctions. Despite that, Stop the War doubled down. As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named ‘Stop the War’ has become a focal point of controversy in the febrile world of the British left.