Tony Blair, your gloomy prediction for us all for the year 2003 is somewhat unnerving.

Your case, as we have come to expect, rests upon the defaults of others with no acknowledgement of your own contribution to that forecast.

Yes, it is hard; far harder than you had thought.

Frankly, your difficulty has been compounded by your own lack of candour and your manipulative approach to politics, including ingratiatingly seeking approval at the cost of integrity.

We are in it deep now, Mr Blair, and I am afraid it is up to you to get us out and cleanse our reputation.

When you first came into office, I - among many - celebrated. We trusted and respected you. We thought - and you said - a new day had dawned. But your open, choirboy-innocent smile and countenance concealed a very different person.

On very many levels, many of us now feel betrayed but, most of all, trust has gone. And how you have humiliated our whole nation by your subservience to the US which, in its turn, now manipulates you and thus us, puppet-like, to its own ruthless agenda.

How dare you assume dominance over the international community? How dare you humiliate the United Nations? How dare you place our nation in this morally perverse position?

You are not the only person on God's Earth to feel the outrage, shock, grieving and bereavement of September 11.

That event, above all, should have cautioned wisdom in your sympathy.

The US is gravely wounded and dangerously unpredictable, especially in present hands. Just what level of idiocy is it that in these circumstances we manacle our nation to this most fearsome, greedy, powerful, deceitful and hypocritical democracy? Have you, truly, no honour left?

It is not too late - but only just. You still could sever those unwanted and inappropriate fetters and again act with wisdom and integrity to support a world order that believes in justice for all human beings.

You have a choice, Mr Blair. You can wash your hands in blood or in a well of living water which is the fountain of all our lives.

Take us to war, Mr Blair, and you will give life to your own prediction and, I fear, a long and painful travail of our planet and people ravaged of its values, joys, promise and hope, poisoning our very souls.

It is too late for niceties, Mr Blair. If you have the courage, act now to retain both dignity and honour.

-H Court, Nunnery Stables, Lewes