SIR - We are told that the Post Office is losing about £70 million a year.

It sounds a lot of money. In fact, such a sum is peanuts compared with the billions being squandered on a useless, unnecessary, grossly wasteful war in Iraq, plus billions more being thrown away on a so-called nuclear deterrent, (which we would have to get US permission to use anyway).

Somehow we must extricate ourselves from the Iraq imbroglio thereby saving vast amounts of money and, more importantly, British lives and hopefully Iraqi and American lives as well.

Furthermore, although in the 19th and early 20th century, Britain ruled the waves, and pretty well everything else as well, the time has come for us to be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that the UK is no longer a great power.

Sweden, Poland, Austria and Turkey are also former great powers. None of them would dream of wasting resources on nuclear deterrents. Neither should we.

We could make one final grand gesture to the world and announce that we are scrapping such nuclear deterrents and invite others to follow suit.

If we saved all those billions, perhaps it would not be necessary to make the elderly and disabled crawl up the stairs at WHSmith to buy a stamp.

D E MARGRETT, Worcester.