ON Saturday, November 3, 2000, Blair's Great Chum Mandelson, then Northern Ireland Secretary, spoke on Irish television about the Trooping of the Colour.

"It's a lot of chinless wonders marching around Horse Guards Parade doing incomprehensible things with flags," he said.

Young Trooper Christopher Finney's Regiment takes part in the Trooping and he's just received the George Cross in Blair's current war.

Mandelson is yet again a principal advisor to Blair. Am I missing something here?

BOB EATON,

Yew Tree Lane,

Bewdley,

Worcs