I FIND it really astonishing at the reaction to Tony Blair's visit to Libya and to meeting with Colonel Gadaffi.

Yes he had in the past carried out terrible crimes against this country and it seems at last he is starting to make amends.

Tony Blair already has proved he can talk to people not totally forgiving what they have done, but talking to the IRA has to some degree stopped a lot of innocent people from further killings.

So talking seems to be his thinking, let's face it, it was tried with Saddam Hussein but he wanted confronta-tions. Let's hope Iraq soon has a country run by a human being not a despot who only wanted to inflict misery on his people.

I think also what about countries like Japan, Germany, Russia now our friends. Look what terrible atrocities they carried out. Men and women in this country are still suffering from the tortures.

Do not let the Tories be the party of sympathy, they had their chance but only provoked confrontations everywhere.

At least Tony Blair can talk to people in a manner that people can respond to, I wish him good luck.

(Mrs) EV STAPLES

Upper Stratton