A lot of people voted for Tony Blair in 1997 because he told us that education was his priority.

Did he not pledge it thrice? Five years on, I was very angry indeed to discover that most of the playground at St Luke's School in Queen's Park, Brighton, had been fenced off because the roof was landsliding.

There is no money to fix it until April.

We must be a patient lot. Yet Mr Blair wasn't prepared to leave it so long before plunging us into a terrible war which the majority of us do not support.

It will cost the nation billions, money we were unable to spend on our kids - and I don't mean computers at every schooldesk but basic structural things.

Call me old-fashioned but I don't believe children should have to risk falling masonry in their school playgrounds, either at St Luke's or in Iraq.

What happened to money for education, education, education?

We seem to have blown it all on remedial classes in international relations for Mr Blair.

-Craig Kenny, Clayton Road, Brighton