Jean Calder is too kind by half to Tony Blair (The Argus, May 5). History will judge his time in office to have been a resounding failure, a continuation of Thatcherism at a time when the country was ready for a radical change.

In the first seven years, the super-rich had doubled their incomes. Private finance initiatives have committed the future revenue of the NHS and education to paying for the profits of a handful of companies, while the minimum wage has all too often become the maximum.

Despite 2,500 workers dying each year in industrial accidents, Tony Blair has failed to find parliamentary time for a corporate manslaughter Bill and the one which is proposed will not entail the possibility of prison for directors who put profits above safety.

Yet there has been no shortage of time for repeated Bills on antiterrorism and immigration.

The most democratic rights, such as the right to demonstrate, have been curtailed and effectively banned within one mile of Parliament. At the same time legal aid has been slashed or, in the case of personal injury, abolished.

Mr Blair has symbolised a Government which has been reduced to the status of lap dog of the United States. Not content with launching an illegal war under false pretences, he has willingly assented to the US administration using British airports for "extraordinary rendition"

- ie, torture flights - and for restocking Israel when it ran out of bombs to drop on Lebanon last summer.

When Craig Murray, the British ambassador in Uzbekistan revealed the horrific nature of the regime we and the US were allied with, including boiling its opponents alive, he was recalled.

So much for Robin Cook's ethical foreign policy.

Jean Calder mentions Tony Blair flaunting his Christian credentials. Unfortunately, as George Bush demonstrates, he is not alone in using religion to justify tyranny and oppression.

But it is his role as a war criminal, responsible for giving political cover to a war that has cost up to a million lives, installed religious sectarianism and presided over human rights abuses every bit as bad as that of Saddam Hussein, which Blair shall be remembered for. His next career step should be in the same dock Slobodan Milosevic occupied.

  • Tony Greenstein secretary, Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre, Crestway Parade, Hollingdean, Brighton