I have now purchased, read and circulated the book and am back in Iraq. It is a blo*dy good story and the timing is great. You have also bequeathed the country a great election slogan - maybe 2nd after 'It's Time'.

As someone who has spent the last nearly five years working for an American firm funded by the US government to do 'post war reconstruction and democratisation'' in such salubrious places as Kosovo and Iraq and a long term student of American politics as well as our own, it had great resonance.

A friend who has now purchased several copies to send to friends described it as 'scary'. Like me, she finds much to link our glorious leader to the less attractive features of the current US administration. This extends in no small measure to the current election campaigns and the use of scare tactics on both the terrorism and economic fronts to substitute for any meaningful discussion of future direction or (dare I say it) policy. Ruddock and Cheney are about as rational as each other. 'Scaring people is the game; re-election is the aim'. (I think, with thanks to Pat Oliphant.)

Your comments on the unlovely Pauline were challenging to me, as someone who has recognised that she represents a fairly widespread view (I don't come from Queensland but as a sometime ringer around Aramac and Clermont with a brother now 23 years in Townsville) I was not surprised by her initial election. I have reserved most of my vitriol, however, for the rodent and his appropriation of her agenda. Distressingly, I have great sympathy with your view that the opposition are similarly exploitive and your description of her position as a cri de couer for many. (It's a bit of a bugger revisiting your prejudices and finding them in need of revision.)

Maybe I should now pay more attention to the web discussion - in the hope that the tolerance of Granny will be greater if there is wider and active participation. Enough waffle. Great job and hopefully an impact beyond the election.