THIS week I will be having dinner at Orchard Place in Smallwood to celebrate the Seven Cooks Diner Project at the Centre.

The scheme aims to offer occupational training to people recovering from mental illness.

In this instance, professional cooks and trainers support individuals working in a commercially based kitchen.

I remember fighting to keep Orchard Place open in the early 1990s so I am pleased that Tripod continue to use the facility to offer imaginative help for vulnerable people.

There is considerable concern in Westminster and around the country about Iraq.

Unfortunately, last week's Advertiser misrepresented my position for which I have received a verbal apology.

However, it is right that I take this opportunity to set the record straight myself.

My position has been to support the efforts of Tony Blair to secure a second UN resolution for the disarming of Iraq. I believe this would have been succesful had the French not rejected the new resolution spelling out the next steps for Saddam to prove he was disarming even before the Iraqi government had.

The choice we face now is whether to pull back from necessary action to disarm Saddam or whether we carry through the will of the international community previously unaninmoulsy expressed in UN resolution 1441.

When faced with tyranical dictators, I believe that it is in our and the world's interests to act.

My thoughts are with our troops and their families and with the Iraqi people who need and deserve liberation from Saddam.