I would normally vote Labour. One side of my nature tells me I should do so again.

After all, I am at least £24 per week better off under Labour, in sharp contrast to Margaret Thatcher's time, when I suffered much.

Why then, do I, as a lifetime Labour man and Independent candidate, advocate an issue which, incidentally, Winston Churchill would have most warmly embraced?

I will tell you why. It is because it is one which totally transcends all party political differences.

Churchill would utterly and thoroughly denounce William Hague's most hasty, ill-timed and thoroughly rash, foolish judgement and support for President Bush's "Son of Star Wars", which could lead to a Doomsday scenario.

Likewise - were he PM today - Churchill, unlike Tony Blair, would fully recognise that his rightful place was not on the hustings but in the capitals of Europe, seeking a constructive response to counter President Bush's highly dangerous plans.

-Thomas Stephen Major, Independent parliamentary candidate for Hove