DEREK Bullock completely misunderstands the significance of the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is now a serious candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party.

If he had attended a meeting to support Jeremy's candidature last Tuesday, August 4 in the Friends Meeting House, he would have understood why he is regarded as providing a hope for the future which is not confined to members of the Labour Party.

First and foremost he is a man of principle and honesty who puts the public good before personal ambition.

The idea promulgated by sneering journalists and sad to say by some of Jeremy's colleagues, that it would be a disaster if a person of principle led the Labour Party tells us something about society that is truly frightening: that it holds that the ideal political leader should be like Blair a person of no principles animated not by the vision of a just society but by personal ambition.

We know that neither Andy Burnham nor Yvette Cooper have principles.

Otherwise they would never have voted for the criminal invasion of Iraq, which was manifestly illegal under international law.

Jeremy Corbyn did not vote for that war, never votes for any war, has always opposed the threat of nuclear terrorism represented by Trident and opposes British membership of an aggressive military alliance like NATO, which is the creature of American militarism.

Jeremy offers a vision of a Britain at peace with itself and at peace with the rest of the world: not a Britain that is perpetually engaged in bombing other people.

Hundreds of civilians have already been killed in its current bombing campaign against Isis.

What a stroke of luck for members of the Labour Party that they have the prospect of voting for a leader who believes in peace and social justice and is prepared always to act according to those beliefs.

Malcolm Pittock, St James Avenue, Bolton