I used to think the first duty of our elected politicians was to protect the health and safety of the people who elect them, regardless of party politics - how naive of me.

We now have a war looming - against a country far away that poses no threat to us - which the overwhelming majority of voters oppose and which could be as disastrous as the Suez debacle and set the entire Muslim world against us.

-John Harrison, Park Crescent Terrace, Brighton