Off to the Stop the War march today. Meet my troops at Highgate Station and link up with Muswell Hill group there. We get to Charing Cross and walk down together to the assembly point at which we part company to join the march and wait, corralled in line for the march to begin. There is a good turn-out – around 15,000 I hear later on the news – to mark the third anniversary of going to war.

In Iraq the British and American troops are like a red rag to a bull. We are seen by a section of the population as an occupying force. We are part of the problem not the solution. Let’s listen to the people and sort out a date and am exit strategy. If there is no date and no plan – it won’t happen.