Passion for peace

As one of the speakers at the rally said, it was a day for people of all colours, all political convictions, all religions and none. On my coach we had students, families, young idealists and middle-aged mums like myself.

It was a glorious day full of passion and good humour. How sad to hear commentators belittling the march. "Only" 150,000 turned up, according to some news.

Organised by a bunch of Trotskyites, one pundit offered. The Trotskyite organisations in this country must be re-examining their membership lists and wondering where all those subscription fees have gone.

Even if the media's estimates of numbers were correct, the march would still be the biggest anti-war demonstration seen in this country for years.

As it was, the facts spoke for themselves. It took five hours for the march to end. As we were waiting for our coach home, others were still marching into Hyde Park.

Even some reporters conceded that the figures could be as high as 400,000.

Don't believe the nonsense about extremism, about legitimate protest somehow giving succour to Saddam's murderous and hateful regime.

Most of the people on that march were like the three coach-loads from York: ordinary people who feel that killing other ordinary people is not the way to solve the problems of the Middle East.

Jane Roberts,

Irwin Avenue,

Heworth, York.

...I TOOK part in the London march against Tony Blair's proposed war in Iraq. Although it started at lunchtime, by 6pm, as most people were preparing to go home, marchers were still pouring into Hyde Park. I should have thought more than 400,000 people took part.

Youngsters, the Muslim community, and respectable middle class Britain were all well represented.

But the real truth behind both countryside and the equally big anti-war march is this: Tony Blair has split the country and now many people see through his consummate lying, evasion, and war-mongering in Parliament and detest him for it.

The only people who cannot see this are apparently the 'yes men' in the Cabinet. I burn with anger at the nasty right wing agenda being peddled by New Labour, a party I used to vote for.

Half the population of Iraq are children under 18. Are we really going to bomb them into submission?

We have a world being engulfed by an environmental crisis, of which a part can be seen by the refusal next year of insurers to underwrite people living on flood plains.

We face a tide of cheap heroin on our streets because of Blair's last war in Afghanistan.

We need investment, not a costly and immoral war. How are the British people under threat from Iraq?

The last thing people in the UK want is another Gulf War, with or without bought out UN backing.

Chris Clayton,

Hempland Drive, York.

...YORK'S peace campaigners are right and wrong. Right to want to avoid war with Iraq but wrong to think that telling Saddam Hussein "we won't attack" will bring peace.

The way to avoid war is to get United Nations weapons inspectors back into Iraq to find, and dismantle, Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Tony Blair called for this in July and with patient diplomacy during the summer he has built international support for this approach.

Saddam Hussein now says he will let in UN inspectors, but he would not have done so without the threat of military action. He forced the inspectors out in 1998 and got away with it because the UN did not have military backing.

Some peace campaigners say Britain is too close to the United States, but Tony Blair is right to build a relationship of trust between our two countries, and to use it to press the Americans to work through the United Nations.

Ultimately, the US President will do what he believes is in his country's best interests, but George Bush would not have spoken to the UN General Assembly and agreed to UN weapons inspectors if Tony Blair had not argued for this approach.

Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and missiles are a real threat. It is not safe just to hope they won't be used.

Britain wants to work through the UN because it is the best way to avoid war. I do not like to threaten military action, but the UN Security Council (and Britain is a permanent member) must be prepared to back UN decisions with force, if necessary. If we don't, the UN would have no authority, and its peace-building decisions would be ignored - especially by tyrants such as Saddam Hussein.

Hugh Bayley,

City of York MP,

Holgate Road, York.

...QUAKERS of York Friargate Meeting, along with countless others, believe all human life is sacred and warfare does not solve problems - true settlements come from negotiation.

We feel strongly that all possible diplomatic options need to be far more thoroughly explored before Britain begins contemplating military action against Iraq.

We urge MPs to have the courage of their convictions and not to step meekly into line behind 'party policy' when a possible world conflict, horribly and wrongly focused as Christian versus Muslim, is ominously close to reality.

We urge everyone to contact MPs now, to make it plain how many oppose this war and wish to see action towards a negotiated solution before it is too late.

Barbara Windle,

Clerk to York Friargate Quaker Meeting, York.

..Messrs Stevens, Featherstone and Westmorland (Letters, September 10), should offer to go out to Iraq and try and negotiate an agreement with tyrant Saddam Hussein to agree to the inspections of his weapons of mass destruction.

I am fed up with the know-alls - Bush and Blair critics - who feel there is a better way of dealing with the terrorist crises. Saddam is even blatantly cruel to many of his own people, including his relatives, and what brave George Bush and Tony Blair are doing is trying to solve the problem.

If it could be done peaceably they would do it - but it looks impossible! English and USA history is littered with brave leaders fighting against evil - Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Clinton, Churchill, Attlee, Thatcher etc - and without their stand we wouldn't now have the freedom we enjoy.

We have a good relationship with the USA and long may it remain so.

Lay off Bush and Blair and give them the support these Christians deserve.

Bryan R Lawson,

Burton Fields Road,

Stamford Bridge, York.

Updated: 10:28 Tuesday, October 01, 2002