TONY Blair's support for a US attack on Iraq, made clear the weekend before last, however much he may have appeared to hedge it round, marks a new and dangerous step towards international anarchy.

For it is clear that, if the US and UK do not obtain the approval of the Security Council (which the presence on it of France, China and Russia makes unlikely), they will go ahead just the same. That is to say the US and UK will embark on the very sort of war -- one of aggression -- that the UN came into being to prevent.

And the propaganda aimed at softening up public opinion to accept such an attack is pure humbug. We are told that Iraq represents a threat to its neighbours, but, at the recent Arab summit, it was made clear that the said neighbours do not think so at all. As for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (if it has any there is no objective evidence on that score), we were under the impression that Britain the US (and Israel) had them too. And wasn't it the US, who is so insistent on the return of UN weapons inspectors, who actually refused to sign a treaty which would have enabled inspectors to check that it had actually cancelled its biological weapons programme? It's the old story -- one law for me and another law for you, particularly if you don't happen to be white.

Saddam Hussein is a tyrannical dictator. But all the Iraqis we have met, who, of course, know this very well, oppose an attack on their country. They know who would suffer -- the Iraqi people, particularly the children, who have already died in their tens of thousands as a result of sanctions and from cancer caused by depleted uranium poisoning as a result of the Gulf War.

We congratulate Dr Iddon on signing an Early Day Motion opposing an attack on Iraq, and hope that other local MPs will add their names to the 140 plus signatures. We hope also that Boltonians will attend a forum-style open meeting on Iraq on Friday, May 17, at 7.30pm, at the Library Lecture Theatre. Dr Iddon will be speaking and invitations have been sent to Bolton's two other MPs and to Gary Titley, the local MEP.

Neil McAlister (Chairman)

Malcolm Pittock (Secretary)

Bolton Stop The War Coalition