SUPPORT OUR BOYS - BRING THEM BACK HOME

The Government is hoping that the protests against the war will fade away now that the war is practically over.

Blair needs to understand that a fundamentally wrong decision does not become right just because people are being killed, injured, and put at risk because of it.

This war was illegal, immoral and ill-advised, and we will continue to express our dissent.

Our conscience compels us to dissent from the notion that violence is a solution to human problems. Violence is the problem, not the solution.

Our duty as citizens is to try to obstruct any illegal action - and this action was illegal.

Our psychological well-being will benefit by protesting, because there is good evidence that people who disagree with the powerful, and yet remain silent, see themselves as powerless, and go on to experience depression. Taking part in demonstrations gives a sense of purpose, power and sharing of common purpose with like minded people.

Sceptics frequently ask us - "What good will it do? You won't change anything. They are not listening". If all the sceptics who ask this question joined the protests, then there would be three or four times as many people out on demonstrations, and although they dismiss demonstrations as irrelevant, governments really do fear massive civil disobedience.

Remember that the Iron Curtain fell not because of a massive bombing campaign from NATO, but because ordinary citizens stood in the streets shaking their keys, and simply refused to go away.

So if the sceptics stopped talking and started walking, they would answer their own questions.

Protests did not stop the war. They did certainly influence the way in which Governments make decisions: they will give orders to commanders to be more careful to avoid any decisions that carry the risk of civilian casualties - and to that extent, protests saved lives.

Far more important is the fact that protests will begin to set the stage for a reform in the way we are governed in Britain and across the world, so that our leaders will look to find ways to contain the many other Saddam Husseins of this world by legal and non-violent means, and so that they will never again take us recklessly into a war that is illegal, immoral, ill-considered and against the wishes of the people.