The political scene.

The centre-left Labour government continues to suffer from the perception that it misled voters over the reasons for supporting the US-led war on Iraq in early 2003. The UK's relations with the EU, for example, could be headed for crisis if British voters choose to reject the recently agreed EU constitution in a referendum that the government only called because it was domestically expedient. The latest evidence of the domestic damage wrought by Mr Blair's support for the US-led war on Iraq was provided by the results of the local and European elections held on June 10th. Although the party remains committed to EU membership, the strength of its commitment has weakened over the past decade as the ranks of Eurosceptics have swelled.