IT is some time since the Thatcher years but her legacy still haunts us.

Whitehall files show that the government supported Saddam in the Iraq/Iran war. His chemical warfare procurement agency, already using mustard gas and nerve agents on Iranians commissioned a chlorine plant to be built at Falluja. It was ordered from a British based company Uhde Ltd, together with a German associated company, a subsidiary of the chemical firm Hoechst.

To his credit Richard Luce, then minister of state at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office expressed concern that the plant, ostensibly a water treatment plant producing chlorine, could easily be used to produce for germ warfare. Paul Channon, the Minister of Trade, dismissed concerns and allowed the project to go ahead. When checks on the completed plant were interrupted in 1990 by the first Gulf war Uhde Ltd claimed £300,000 from the Export Credits Guarantee department a part of the Trade Ministry.

Thus not only was it government approved, the British taxpayer paid for it. It was kept secret from the public and from USA. Saddam had already gassed thousands of Iranians some of whom, were brought here for treatment. Who then was the 'enemy within' and who are the real war criminals? Don't let us carry on the hypocrisy of former rulers. Must we murder even more helpless people? Let your MP know how you feel. No war, more jaw.

ANNE LUBIN

Brunswick Street,

Swindon