Criminal offense

In that former beacon of enlightened opinion, rights and tolerance, Ye Olde United Kingdome, it is now a criminal offense to read out in public within a mile of "Dowdy" Street and Parliament the names of those British young men who have died in foreign wars, especially illegal and immoral ones such as that on Iraq, which has been carried out in the name of Tony Blair, prime minister.

Maya Anne Evans, an antiwar activist, has been criminally convicted for the said "offense".

Now, next time an Indonesian hears a British government official pontificating about "progress toward democracy" in Indonesia or Iraq or anywhere else for that matter, perhaps they'd like to ask in which direction Britain might be going!

DAVID JARDINE, Jakarta