We remember Iraq in this election

Of the questions that have been glossed over during this election, one omission is most remarkable. In 2005 around one million voters deserted Labour as a result of Iraq. Most of them found a home with the Liberal Democrats, the only major party to have taken the risk – and it was a risk at the time – of opposing the invasion. It is the issue that defined the Blair premiership, the issue that reinforced the intense public animosity towards the mainstream political process. And yet, this time around, it has barely been mentioned. During the second televised debate, the one focusing on foreign affairs, it did receive a short outing. But Nick Clegg did not dwell. In its otherwise strong and very welcome endorsement of the Lib Dems on Saturday, the leader article in the Guardian gave Iraq a brief mention, pointing out that no apology has ever been offered by any of the main players. And yet the recent testimonies of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and others to the Chilcot inquiry were moments of great significance. When the Chilcot team deliver their final report, the New Labour era will be a distant memory. Changes will be demanded about the workings of Whitehall, in an attempt to prevent a repetition of a process in which civil servants and cabinet ministers were supine and parliament was rolled over. They will be solemnly adopted. But the political reckoning has never happened and will now never happen. Large swathes of the population remain deeply angered by the events of 2002-03 and since, not least the families of the service personnel killed or maimed in a conflict that was entered into on the back of the vanity of a British prime minister and an American president. Labour candidates tell me it is brought up at the doorstep more often than the media portrays. It is entirely patriotic and responsible to denounce the under-equipment of our forces and to demand new mechanisms that will ensure something like this never happens again. It is no surprise that Labour candidates wish to draw a line. It is no surprise that the Conservatives wish to "move on", as their enthusiasm for Bush's neo-con mission was at least as ardent as Blair's was (a point they are reminded of far too seldom). As he seeks to keep the momentum up in the crucial final few days, Clegg is right to concentrate mainly on the issues of the moment – the economic crisis, the desperate yearning for a new politics and the opportunity presented to the Lib Dems to become the strongest voice in a more pluralist centre-left. But what better way of reminding people of the essential difference between his party and that of a thuggish and tired Labour clan led by both Blair and Brown than to mention the greatest failure of their era? • More Guardian election comment from Cif at the polls