We have indeed been “lied to about the war”, and we need as many people as possible to dare “to speak the truth”. The furore that followed Mr Wolfgang’s comment should not overshadow this, although, as Matthew Norman says in his article, it does “encapsulate everything that is so poisonous, demented, dangerous and plain daft” about Mr Blair’s Labour Party. What was demonstrated at Brighton was that the apparatus falls strongest on the weakest. ANTHONY LIPMANN EAST MOLESEY, SURREY Sir: May I, through your Letters Page, thank Walter Wolfgang for saying what I, and thousands like me, hope we would have said had we been there; may I also thank him for his powerful and utterly reasonable piece (30 September). The largest source of dictatorial edicts, actually, is from the EU, where “directives” (Directif was the word Hitler used) multiply like duck-weed and are in danger of smothering the pond and killing the fish. As law heaps on law, we are not so much subject to crazed individuals but to an apparatus.

Under the weight of so much regulation the citizen becomes very small and the state very large. It might also encourage us all to lobby the Government to enforce stricter, less wasteful planning guidelines on new homes and offices. The less power we use, the weaker the argument for such a terrifying prospect as a radioactive future. WILL MCNEILL LONDON N16 Why we thank Walter Wolfgang Sir: We should all be grateful to Walter Wolfgang (30 September) for reminding us that there is a generation of Europeans, living witnesses, who can remind us of the slow slide to totalitarianism. It is all very well thinking that we may recognize totalitarian tendencies, but is that really the case? As Mr Wolfgang demonstrated, these don’t come in easily recognizable packages. But with each day they get frailer and fewer in number; and meanwhile the threat becomes greater. But such opposition would surely fade if the choice was between a back-yard full of radioactive waste or a few white propellers.

The main obstacle to the continued increase in our use of wind power is the widespread local opposition in many of the proposed areas of construction, on aesthetic grounds. SAIME G?SU EDWARD TIMMS BRIGHTON, EAST SUSSEX Nuclear power debate reopened Sir: I feel strangely optimistic now that the Government has reopened the debate on the use of nuclear power (reports, 28 and 29 September). One might ask whether the heirs to the tolerant Ottomans would really benefit from closer ties with xenophobic descendants of the British Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. But the country is proud of its independence, reflected in the refusal of the Turkish parliament to support the invasion of Iraq. Turkey is expanding its trade with its neighbours, including the Turkic states of the former Soviet Union. Turkey has a secular, democratic constitution with high voter turnout in national elections. If you visit its modern art galleries, theatres and concert halls or browse in the bookshops, you will find a dynamic mixture of western and middle eastern cultures.

Strategically, the country could hardly be more important, not least because of the new 1,000-mile oil pipeline from Caspian Sea, which runs through Turkey to the Mediterranean. There has been a spectacular expansion of higher education (with over 70 universities), and Turkish-trained scientists and other professionals are already working in many countries of the EU. Modern Turkey has a youthful, enterprising and well-educated population with a stable currency and healthy economic growth. NICK MAURICE DIRECTOR, UK ONE WORLD LINKING ASSOCIATIONMANTON, WILTSHIRE Sir: Anyone familiar with Turkey will find it hard to recognize the country portrayed in your well intentioned but misleading front page feature (1 October) with its images of “Ottoman luxury”. Properly applied this could be a vital outcome to the embracing of Turkey within the European Union. Those of us that have been involved in community partnerships (twinnings) between communities in the UK and Muslim countries in the developing world have been introduced to a faith and culture which in many ways has caused us to reflect on our own impoverished society as well as giving us the opportunity to bring people of different faiths together within our own society for greater social cohesion.