HOW many other people are like me and would love the chance to ask George Bush a simple question?

It is: given your stated views on freedom, democracy, Christian principles etc, how do you link these alleged beliefs with the situation at Guantanamo Bay, where human beings - including British citizens - are robbed of their dignity and kept in peril of their lives without any trial or rights of representation.

One assumes your friendship with Mr Blair does not extend to accepting his assurances were they to be tried in this country.

I should like to ask Tony Blair:

why are you spending £10 million of public money on entertaining the representative of a country which between the years of 1945 and 2000 attacked at least 37 countries with whose policies it disagreed?

Did someone mention terrorism?

Liz Edge,

Parkside Close, York.

...IN response to Mr Robert's letter suggesting we give Mr Bush a warm welcome (November 18), I can only respond by saying that Bush arrived in the UK too late.

About two weeks earlier and he would have made a superb Guy Fawkes. For a really warm welcome he should have gone to Australia where they have bush fires on a daily basis.

Eddie Vee,

Wenham Road,

Woodlands, York.

...The world would be better without Saddam Hussein but the repercussions of this conflict were never properly thought through. All this war has done is stir up a hornet's nest of terrorism and destabilise the Middle East.

NL Fletcher,

Langton Road,

Norton, Malton.

Updated: 11:09 Thursday, November 20, 2003