He fails to set out any practical steps. And does he really want us to support the Georgian government right or wrong? Again, he fails to make any comment on Georgian policy towards those communities which, like South Ossetia found themselves, by chance, within the Georgian state boundary on the break up of the Soviet Union.

I have been to Georgia on a number of occasions and would go again tomorrow. From my personal experience, the Georgian people show the most open-hearted hospitality imaginable to all their visitors, but they have been badly served by their governments. Georgia has a population equivalent to that of Yorkshire and it was crazy to take Russia on. The idea that Western governments would come to the military aid of Georgia against Russia in an invasion of South Ossetia was always fanciful. Was this the kind of support the Bishop wants?

The accident of border lines should not be exacerbated by leaders who prate about "sovereign territory". South Ossetia has a population less than a Leeds parliamentary constituency and is separated from North Ossetia by a line on a map that hardly mattered when they were both in the Soviet Union.

It has never co-operated with Georgia and has refused to participate in Georgian elections – in fact, I was asked to go there to try to persuade them to take part, but they refused to meet me.

The sooner we stop letting leaders get away with pleading "national pride" or even "patriotism" as an excuse to defend artificial and irrational borders, the better.

The obsession with sovereignty and the nation state is relatively recent in origin and needs to be replaced with international co-operation and transnational politics.

From: Ray Deans, Church Fields, Deighton, Huddersfield.

WHAT a sad, sad spectacle we have when our own Government is neutered by its own actions and support for violent intervention to the extent that Russia simply ignores them.

A week after fighting began between Russian and Georgian forces over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, we hear that George Bush thinks "bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century". We also have to
listen to our Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, stating the obvious, in that "force is not the basis for resolving difficult issues and is not the basis for international relations".

The problem with these words is that they are spoken by the representatives of two countries who have and continue to engage in bullying, intimidation and are not afraid to use force to resolve affairs in their perceived favour.

Russia will never listen to what they (and I'm afraid the rest of the world) see as hypocritical thugs denouncing others for something they do themselves.

If they had listened to the democratic voices of the millions who took to the streets in an attempt to make them see sense, they wouldn't be the waste of space they appear to be on the world stage and lives would be saved.

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

PRESIDENT George W Bush displays staggering hypocrisy exceptional even for politicians.

Leave aside the fact that Georgia committed the initial aggression, Mr Bush condemns Russia. This after the criminal tragedy of Iraq which was quite on a par with Radovan Karadzic's evil deeds.

Of course, no one holds a brief for the sinister Vladimir Putin, but isn't it about time that the world recognises that the pathetic Mr Bush and his administration have no moral authority left?

And that goes for his poodle Tony Blair, too.

From: RB Holroyd, Headlands, Liversedge, Batley.

THEY say a leopard never changes its spots. Nor does it seem the Russian bear changes its coat.


Time is right for another Norman conquest


From: Norman Armistead, Green Park Avenue, Cayton, Scarborough.

ADMITTEDLY, my name began life as a Germanic nickname (Yorkshire Post, August 12). Nor-man means northman, as Vikings were sometimes called. There's a bit of French in there, as well, as the Vikings settled in the region we know as Normandy, and conquered England in the 11th century.

Enough of the history.

As a man from the North, I am proud to bear the name Norman, one of the strong names that have stood the test of time.

The rumour that it is dying out cannot be allowed to gain ground.

Given that we Bradfordians are being urged to up sticks and emigrate south to Basingstoke – Basingstoke, where's that? – it seems to me that all Normans should stand together and do all we can to promote it as a name that marks a man out as a proud Yorkshireman and true northerner.

Maybe it would help if a campaign were launched to popularise the name. Norman Vincent Peale of The Power of Positive Thinking fame is no longer around to help. The Hull-born Fat Boy Slim, the world-renowned DJ, born Quentin Cook, later changed his name to Norman, so maybe he would pitch in. Then there is General Norman Schwarzkopf, of Operation Desert Storm, who declared: "True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing the job." That's the spirit, spoken like a true Norman. Stormin' Norman! And let's not forget Norman Tebbit.