The visit of US President George W. Bush to the UK in November 2003 was a moment of significance in British history, as demonstrations against it revealed massive public outrage over the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Iraq became the most important reason why the British public grew increasingly disaffected with the Tony Blair government and, indeed, with the country’s electoral politics altogether.
What we saw then were the first signs of the exhaustion of liberal democratic politics.
By David Miller
In the intervening years, there was a last hurrah for the idea that change could come from the ballot box, most notably with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party.