There is an ancient saying: 'Strike an Englishman once and he'll smile; twice and he'll turn away; but strike him thrice and he'll kill you'.

However, like Aneuran Bevan, I cannot accept that we should "...fight Blenheim over and over again." And that sending a gunboat is the only way to settle international disputes. But remembering the slaughter of innocent and defenceless Britons and

Commonwealth citizens in Egypt, Kosovo and Yemen, I ask how many more times are we to smile and turn away from those who think they taunt a toothless lion, and that John Bull's day is past?

So, Messrs Blair, Cook and Robertson, imitate the action of the tiger, if needs must, but in the cause of British lives and not Mid-East oil.

Bryan Marlowe,

Otterwood Lane,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.