THE New Labour spin machine has reached a new frontier of nausea.

The depiction of Blair's solicitude over the Iraq war in the Murdoch press (The Sun, Friday, April 18) was as phoney and cheap as an American soap.

This unveiling of family angst with Cherie and Euan in heart-tugging support rang about as true as a cracked bell.

His act of preparing to fall on his sword had he failed to get the support of the House of Commons for war turned a political inevitability into an act of affected nobility.

The prospect of a victory parade, to be called a "liberation" parade, is in the worst possible taste given the destruction of a country whose infrastructure was razed to the ground and which suffered many civilian deaths.

The proposed parade will have nothing to do with respect for the armed forces. Its purpose will be for a bunch of manipulative scoundrels to take refuge in patriotism.

No wonder he declined to give an assurance to the contrary when asked by MPs if vital infrastructure would be spared.

There would be nothing for American firms to rebuild if it had.

The Labour Party has always been a social democratic party and a supporter of world peace through the United Nations. It has a leader who believes in neither, a supporter of American imperialism and a front for the neo-conservative termination of social democracy in Europe.

Unless the Labour Movement shows the courage to evict him, this cuckoo will occupy the nest until it falls apart.

PETER NIELSEN,

Worcester.