IN highly questionable taste again, Mr Blair jokes and jerks the tears in lamenting that he does not receive the applause at home that he enjoys in the US.

There seems to be a little bit of asylum-seeking in its purest sense going on here.

By all means, let Mr Bush issue him with an extended work permit so that he might continue to make his contribution where is allegiances lie.

He certainly won't need compulsory evening classes in the language to prove his grasp of the culture.

No doubt, either, that he would be locked up or issued with vouchers while his credentials are checked out.

Don't apologise for your values, he exhorts, dangling from the same hook.

It's a pity he doesn't accord colleagues and citizens here the same approach.

History will forgive, he thinks. History will be written up by man and it depends who writes it as to how favourably or otherwise individuals will be reflected.

Forget about history, Mr Blair. What about God? Or have all roads been diverted away from the confessional now that war as a regular policy option is written into the New Labour manifesto?

W HANDS,

Upton-upon-Severn.