Philip James, Lib Dem, Bristol East

As a matter of principle, because I hope to be representing the interests of the people of Bristol East and not the position of any national special interest group, no matter whether I may privately agree with their aims or not, I do not respond to questionnaires from national pressure groups. As a prospective constituent, I am however happy to address your personal questions.

I am marketing manager for a firm of naval architects that designs ships for the Royal Navy.

I believe that a strong defence is essential to the security of the citizens of the UK. However 'Defence' is the operative word - a sword can be used to attack others as well as defend oneself, unless the soldier is well disciplined and his/her political masters are responsible when exercising political direction over the armed forces.

Invading another country without a clear and imminent threat to our security and international legal sanction as Tony Blair did in Iraq is an abuse of that political power. There are many who work in the defence industry and who serve in our armed forces who are extremely concerned about how and why we were taken into this war.

The Liberal Democrats voted to a person against New Labour's invasion of Iraq. If I had been in Parliament at the time I too would have voted with my Lib Dem colleagues against the war on 18 March 2003.

You may choose not to vote for me simply because I currently work in the defence industry. To be blunt, if you did, I think you would be doing so because you would have pigeon-holed me according to a stereotype rather than have made a judgement based on my qualities or lack of them as an individual. I'm not a professional politician - I'm not going to dissemble about my beliefs to curry favour or win votes.

On the other hand, you may instead consider it beneficial to have someone in Parliament who knows how the military operates and is better placed to tell when they are behaving responsibly.

You also have to consider the alternatives.

Jean Corston voted for the war; will the new Labour candidate toe the party line in the same way, if and when Tony Blair decides to follow George Bush into engineering another conflict in Iran, North Korea or elsewhere?

The Tories voted, with a few honourable exceptions, for Tony's War. They behaved terribly in the Chamber, pillorying Charles Kennedy week after week for asking the questions they, as the Official Opposition should have been asking. Voting for the Conservative candidate, whatever her personal position on defence will simply perpetuate the aggressive, might-is-right, to-hell-with-international law position of the New Labour and Tory parties.

That the Liberal Democrats were unable to stop the Iraq war democratically in the Commons is not a reason for not voting for us. It is a reason for increasing the number of Liberal Democrat MPs in that chamber.

I hope that helps?

Phil