Star Scientists Against Bliar

Stephen Hawking:

I urge everyone to vote in the election tomorrow only for MPs who voted against the war in Iraq.

Richard Dawkins:

Tony Blair's otherwise baffling conduct is illuminated by his statement that "I am elected as prime minister to do what I believe is right - and that is what I did" (Cheers and jeers in leaders' TV trial, April 29). No, Mr Blair was elected MP for Sedgefield and the Queen then invited him, as leader of the majority in the Commons, to form a government. He is first minister of a cabinet in a parliamentary democracy.

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But Mr Blair evidently thinks he is a president, if not an absolute monarch, whose private beliefs of right and wrong should determine a country's policy. In his unseemly rush to war, he neglected to inform or consult his cabinet, feeding them and parliament carefully censored allowances of intelligence and legal advice, doctored and spun to justify an irrevocable decision agreed long before in Washington.

Disillusioned Labour supporters now understand this and more, yet many dare not change their vote. Polls show them about to reward a known liar, because they have been conned into believing Michael Howard could become prime minister. This scaremongering is about as realistic as the infamous 45-minute weapons scare, which successfully duped parliament into voting for war. The constituency boundaries are such that no plausible swing could bring us even close to a Tory majority. Former Labour supporters who feel inclined to vote Liberal Democrat may do so without fear. Blair succeeded in scaring us into an illegal war. Don't let him scare us now into voting against our true inclinations.

(Disclosure: even tough I had to learn that political naivety can rule in even the brightest minds, as someone trained as an astronomer - but landing rather far from that in professional life - I still retain a higher respect for the opinions of scientists.)

BTW, who thought Terry Jones (of the Pythons) was a radical left voter.