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For a brief moment, I thought the Pope might work his magic. Now I am pinning my hopes on another miracle - the election of Kenneth Clarke as leader of the Tories. To Hon David Stewart MP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber Hello David As this may be a defining week in British politics, you may be interested in my current voting intentions. I am a classical floating voter. I voted for Tony Blair in 1997 to get rid of the Tories, and then LibDem at the next election, because we had done too good a job defeating the Tories, and there was no longer any credible opposition. The LibDems have been a great disappointment, and under current Tory leadership, the Tories aren't opposing at all on what are emerging as the most important issues. The issue that is inflaming the passions of millions of voters like myself is Iraq. The bottom line is that I have less fear of Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction than I do of George W, and his evangelical zeal to enforce his vision of American values on the rest of the world. To put it bluntly, I dislike and distrust Bush more than Saddam. For Tony Blair to have made such a close alliance with Bush is, in my view, an act of folly. As long as he is leader of your party, there is no way that you will ever get my vote. I am now left with the choice of LibDems or Tories. If by a miracle, IDS is removed from office and Kenneth Clarke becomes leader, then amazingly, the Tories will get my vote. (I can't remember ever having voted Tory before). Otherwise, it may just have to be the LibDems. The debate on Iraq this week is less about the rights and wrongs of disarming Saddam Hussein, than about confidence in Tony Blair. There is only one possibility that I would vote for you, that is, if Tony Blair is removed and replaced by someone not in the pocket of George Bush. I can't at the moment think of any viable candidates. It's a tough one. I look forward with great interest to seeing whether the mass of the British public who think like me are going to become re-enfranchised with leaders that represent our views. Good luck in your decision on Wednesday. Best regards, Michael Nairn _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk