Brighton, Hove and District United Nations' Association is very concerned about the insularity of campaigning issues in the election.

The outside world - with its Balkan wars, threatened US nuclear arms race into space, environmental degradation worldwide and growing gap between rich and poor nations - might not exist.

Yet every issue contested on TV and in the Press is affected by what is happening in the wider world.

More money for education, health and old people? What about the £11 billion spent annually on nuclear weapons alone? Asylum seekers flooding in? Many are escaping from wars fuelled by Western arms sales. Joining Europe or not? What about our "special relationship" with the US? And of the United Nations, no mention. Yet it is the one international organisation which could bring some order under international law. It is underfunded, ignored and manipulated.

All these issues need to be addressed and politicians, including those of Brighton and Hove, still have time before June 7.

-Sheila Schaffer, chairman Eileen Daffern, UNA executive, United Nations' Association, Brighton, Hove and District, Pelham Square, Brighton