Ms John has impeccable activist credentials and a longstanding record of running against Blair in Sedgefield. But if her aim is to cause damage to the government war machine then she, along with all other candidates in Sedgefield, would do well to take the advice of David Shayler and withdraw her nomination to give Reg Keys, another independent, a clear run.

Voting in the constituency can be broken down into 4 blocs, only one of which has any chance of defeating Blair:

1. Blair (LAB)

2. Anti-war candidates - (Browne: LIBDEM / Cockburn: Blair Must Go Party / John: Independent / Keys: Independent)

3. conservative candidates - (Lockwood: Conservative / Brown: UKIP / Luckhurst-Matthews: Veritas)

4. Monster Raving Loony Party etc


At the last election in 2001, Labour won the seat with the following result:
Labour 64.9%, Conservative 20.9%, Liberal Democrat 9.0%, Others 5.2%. This was a Labour majority of 44% representing 17,000 votes.

While the conservative vote is likely to stay static or fall as the three right-wing parties fight it out between themselves, the anti-war vote is in a position to make massive gains from Labour.

But the anti-war bloc, which ought to share the single aim of unseating Blair, needs to get organised and allow one candidate a clear run. Of those standing in the anti-war group, Reg Keys has the strongest chance of winning. Keys is the father of Royal Military policeman, Lance Corporal Tom Keys, 20, one of six Red Caps killed by an Iraqi mob in June 2003. He is a founder member of the campaign group Military Families Against the War.

Keys has said: "Tony Blair led this country into an illegal war on the basis of weapons of mass destruction which did not exist, and he asks us, with his schoolboy grin, to put this behind us. I'm sorry Mr Blair, but there has to be accountability - you cannot just walk away from this with impunity. I am here to hold you to account for the human and material costs of this war."

Browne, Cockburne and John should put their personal interests aside and join Keys because overturning a 17,000 majority is a real possibility.