As the occupation of Iraq continues to reap its murderous toll of death - including countless Iraqis and increasing numbers of US and British service personnel - Military Families Against the War laid flowers at the Cenotaph and took a petition to Downing Street on April 26 AS TONY BLAIR wielded the long knife and ruthlessly axed a new group of ministers, many people were painfully aware that the person whose job ought to be on the line was the PM himself.
All or ine New Labour s most unpopular policies - those that have alienated voters across the country, brought the loss of Labour councils and reduced the Party to its lowest poll ratings since the early 1990s - flow from Blair's own political alliance with George Bush, and his ideological fixation with the private sector and market-style policies in place of public sector planning.
There was almost as much surprise at the number of bungling, unpopular ministers who survived Blair's latest cull'two shags' Prescott, Hewitt, Jowell - as the number of servile Blair acolytes who faced demotion and sideways moves as he struggled to present a less tainted face to a visibly unimpressed electorate.
Philandering Prescott stays on as Deputy PM, with perks and pay estimated at more than £900,000 a year intact, only his workload reduced as his departBlair's trusties are forcing through New Labour agenda: Brown, Reid and Beckett Preparing a grim legacy - Blair ment has been largely taken from him and broken into smaller units.
Jowell keeps her post as minister for drinking and gambling despite her failure to ask the most obvious questions about the loans and deals being conducted by her husband, sometimes with her signature.
Hewitt, who has taken the flak for the chaos created by Blair's half-baked health care reforms, is rewarded by another spell in the hot seat despite evidence that she has lost any of the respect she might have had from health union leaders, who are now struggling to contain mounting anger among their members.
The removals began with the most obvious and immediate problem: Home Secretary Clarke had to go after such monumental incompetence was uncovered in such a sensitive area at the interface between Blair's racist crackdown on immigration and asylum, his Tory-style "law and order" policies and the authoritarian crackdown on civil liberties as part of the so-called "war on terror".
It is by no means as clear why Jack Straw got the elbow from his post as Foreign Secretary. Speculation that he had annoyed Blair and the Bush administration by over-hasty and public rejection of the crazy notion of military action against Iran jockeyed with rumours that he was to be outed in a major newspaper for getting rather too close to Condoleezza Rice in their recent extended double-act for imperialism.
His job is now sub-divided and effectively reduced in status, handed over to the second team of reliable Blairites Margaret Beckett and Geoff Hoon.
Ruth Kelly who had won few friends and antagonised many in forcing through Blair's plans for the marketisation and privatisation of education has been consigned to Community and Local Government, to be replaced at Education by arch-Blairite onetime union leader Alan Johnson.
As the dust settles and the new team struggles to make itself seem politically different while ramming through the same discredited policies, Blair has promised that he will himself stand down as leader early enough to "allow ample time" for his successor - presumably Gordon Brown - to take charge before the next general election.
But recent weeks have banged home the point that far from having serious differences, in George Galloway's memorable phrase Blair and Brown are "two cheeks of the same arse" -agreed on all the key issues of policy.
Whether it be the war, civil liberties, privatisation, anti-union laws, market-style reforms or anything else, Brown has already expressed his support for Blair's policies
Those waiting for a leadership change as the trigger to "reclaim the Labour Party" are deluding themselves and others: New Labour has been effectively hijacked by Blair and Brown, and the control is entirely in their hands.
The fight for alternative policies can only proceed through the fight for a new, left wing alternative party, and Respect has again staked a strong claim to be the front-runner in this process.