Politics OnLine UK

Sent 17 July 2004, as yet, no reply.

Dear Geraldine Smith,

I respect that MP's had a very difficult decision to make based on information that now proves false. It remained for those of us in the unheard and ignored British public to question why the government voted to make a pre-emptive strike against a sovereign nation that was not actively engaged in any acts of aggression against any other sovereign nation. Saddam Hussein had not changed his stripes since the previous war in Iraq when he invaded Kuwait, so Hussein was not the issue, though monster he may have been.

Reading your article I was struck by how facile it reads. A limp excuse for a vote that should never have been made, should never have been presented to parliament. The war was unconscionable, but who listened to those of us who said so? No-one. We, the British public, were ignored. Something that Tony Blair is a master of.

It is far too late now to declare foul play, that cry should have been made before the inexcusable invasion of Iraq. After the fact, after Hutton and Butler, is too ridiculously little and far too late.

I also abhor the use of violence in all its forms. It runs contrary to my moral, intellectual and religious beliefs, and I find the appalling carnage and destruction that occurs during a war almost too horrific to contemplate. How, I wonder, was it possible for those of us who knew the invasion of Iraq was quite simply wrong to see that, and not for members of Parliament to see it?

Your article does you and the government no favours, it does not restore my confidence in parliament, nor in the democratic process, nor does it help me decide what on earth I am to do at the next general election when I am going to be asked to vote for a political party when I have lost confidence in all political parties. If I refuse to vote there is nowhere for me to register that I am making a political statement of no confidence, I will simply be blamed for being apathetic.

I would like to think that one day there will emerge a parliamentary person who will not use spin and rhetoric, nor self serving principles and practice. A person who truly wishes to serve the public and to perform public duty. I have little hope that such a person will emerge any time soon. I have lost confidence in all of you, not only that, I am bitterly angry that Orwells 1984 has arrived and is doing so well and there does not seem to be anything I can do about it. I have no confidence that writing and protesting will achieve anything. That will not stop me, for it is the duty of us all to do so when such great wrongs are being committed.

To my great shame I voted for Labour at the last general election. I come from a family that is traditionally Tory. My socialism is the socialism of thought and study. It do not take it lightly and I am ashamed that I voted such a devastatingly abusive party into power that allowed an international travesty to take place at the cost of so many lives.

We, the British public are owed an apology, as are the devastated people of Iraq, it is too late, but never the less it is owed. When will that happen?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1263365,00.html

Yours sincerely,

Keith Lindsay-Cameron

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