Government minister resigns over Lebanon. posted by Richard Seymour

The cabinet split has been well reported on: now the first resignation has taken place:

Jim Sheridan, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, resigned as a parliamentary private secretary to the defence team.

He said: "The reason I am resigning is the current conflict in the Middle East."

The 52-year-old said he believed the Palestinian situation had been put on the back burner.

He added: "I don't expect my resignation will have any significant impact on the prime minister's objectives in the Middle East, which I genuinely believe to be honourable on his part, but I don't believe they reflect the core values of the Labour Party or indeed the country."

In a letter to Tony Blair, he said that the decision to allow US aircraft travelling to Israel to stop off in the UK did not sit comfortably with the International Convention on Human Rights.

I suggest that had there been no protests over Lebanon, this MP would still be sitting in his ministerial [update: the guy was a PPS, not a minister] seat, wrestling quietly with his conscience. Obviously we'd prefer heads to roll, particularly Blair's: and when I say 'roll', I mean fall into a basket from a wooden block, tipping it over and tumbling to the feet of a large, baying crowd who then improvise a game of footy. However, the strains are showing, the cracks are there, and we have to drive the wedge in deeper. The direct action at Prestwick and at Raytheon's plant in Derry are examples of what can be done. The next big chance to hammer the government will be outside the Labour Party conference in Manchester on September 23rd. We've got to make that massive.