WHETHER one considers the Government's "evidence" on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to have been sexed-up or over-egged there is no doubt that coalition forces in Iraq are now over-stretched.

This could equally apply to the Government's case for the war on Iraq. The question is not whether the war was about WMDs but why Bush and Blair were so keen to see a regime change in Baghdad.

This apparent disparity between the Government's public and private agendas leaves one wondering about its other agendas, such as the modernising of public services through the private finance initiative.

Are public services to be improved through private sector disciplines or are they ultimately to be handed over to the private sector as in America and will American corporations be as involved in modernisation as in the rebuilding of Iraq? Such questions will be uppermost in the minds of the brothers at the Trades Union Congress and Labour Party conferences.

Richard Lamb,

Greystoke Road,

York.

Updated: 10:54 Friday, September 12, 2003