WAS Mr Brian Derbyshire slapping down Mrs Gault? Or was it she who started by disagreeing awkwardly with Mr Essa?

In any case, I believe that Mr Derbyshire's letter on Iraq's plight was one of his best yet. And thank you too, Mr Barry Mills for your caring lines in the same matter.

Is it possible that Mrs Gault's anger was a sign of this nation's bad conscience? Because, is it not true that the American-Anglo Empire is alive and as determined as ever to dominate the peoples of this planet and their natural resources? And, woe betide those nations who dare to object to our politics of supremacy. Their leaders are being ostracised and their peoples bombed or starved into submission by means of crippling sanctions. We have a long tradition of telling other countries what to do. We say, it's for the sake of freedom, democracy and human rights, but we mean raw materials -- oil, uranium, diamonds and, above all -- profits.

Our righteous leaders never cared much for democracy in oil-rich countries, just as long as their autocratic rulers co-operate and hand over the goods, mainly on our terms. Saddam Hussein should have known that his people would suffer when he tried to gain more influence over his country's oil and to re-draw the boundaries with Kuwait, which were enforced on Iraq by the British Empire.

Ironically, while our governments keep interfering in other countries' affairs and the Western war machine keeps smashing some of them to smithereens, our own countries are opened up to millions of foreigners, many of whom became uprooted and were made homeless by such actions.

It is of little consolation to these oppressed peoples that we, too, suffer thousands of casualties every year caused by internal sanctions, due to 'lack of money'.

We certainly have our share of heartless people who blame misery always and exclusively on the victims. During our last major strike -- that of the miners -- a local politician was quoted as saying that he felt pity for children who suffered, especially during Christmas, but in the case of the miners' children he believed that their suffering was 'self-inflicted'.

I would have given up on my own people then, but for the firm knowledge that there are also many with a heart of plenty!

Mrs B Stuart

Lord's Stile Lane,

Bromley Cross,

Bolton