Terrorists are like wasps - we can exterminate them or we can keep getting stung.KEITH GILMOURGLASGOW Emergency services show their worth Sir: On what is clearly a terrible day for Britain and democracy, I cannot applaud strongly enough the professionalism and efficiency of our emergency services in dealing with the bombing attacks in London.Our public services are often ridiculed or in the spotlight for inefficiencies. Surely we must, at last, expel from our shores all potential disciples of this kind of terror - irrespective of where they might be sent.MICHAEL ROMANSTILEHURST BERKSHIRESir: Ever since 9/11, we have been hamstrung by bleeding-heart liberals, leftists and lawyers bleating about the imagined "rights" of those who support (or refuse to condemn) al-Qa'ida. Freedom carries risks and they have to be lived with, under the umbrella of reasonable protection.JONATHAN NOTLEYLONDON W3 Phlegmatic public set an example Sir: Listening to the BBC World Service, I can only feel admiration for the phlegmatic attitude of my compatriots towards the explosions in central London. Dodgy intelligence in Iraq has now been followed by not one but several bomb explosions at home.What is clear is that this was a carefully timed and targeted attack, designed to give maximum publicity, given the G8 and Olympic announcements.

No doubt those responsible rightly figured that the G8 at Gleneagles would distract those charged with protecting London.Instead of a panic reaction quickly pointing fingers of blame, I hope that a careful investigation is carried out, both into who did this and why there was a total failure on the part of those supposedly meant to safeguard us.Moreover, this should not be used as an excuse by an authoritarian government to clamp down further on our civil liberties. It is now clear that Mr Blair's actions have made our country a more dangerous place.We can only hope that he resigns to leave the country and our safety in the hands of a more sensible leader.ALEX WOLFSONLOUGHTON,

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ESSEXSir: Will it occur to the politicians who went to war in Iraq that they created far more terrorists than they destroyed, and that we are now reaping the consequences?DAVID LOVELONDON SW20 Another failure of intelligence Sir: The bomb blasts that took place in London point to another failure of the security and intelligence services. And then we have re-elected those responsible.What a surprise that our innocents should be murdered in return for their innocents. Let's stop this murder and put on trial those criminals who are within our jurisdiction. Let's start with the British government.PATRICK DALYLONDON SW19Sir: The blasts in London would not have happened had our Prime Minister not decided to join George W Bush's ill-advised invasion of Iraq.

So stand-by for more CCTV and satellite surveillance, black boxes in your cars, more stop and search, the hounding of ethnic minority communities, and yes, the compulsory issue of ID cards with heaven knows what information on them.ALAN HAYNESGRAVESEND, KENTSir: How many innocents have been murdered in our streets today? Whatever the number, they're just ordinary people going about their ordinary business.And who is responsible - Islamic terrorists? What a surprise! We have killed thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq, innocent people going about their ordinary business. We cannot go around the world administering our own brand of "democracy" and "freedom" through the barrel of a gun without the expectation of some kind of response. We should never have gone to war in the first place, and Britain has now suffered, and is likely to face more attacks, as a result of the Prime Minister's mendacious warmongering.GREGORY TOPALIANMELBOURN, HERTFORDSHIRESir: This should be a wake-up call to the people of Britain. But he has done more to undermine these very tenets himself during his tenure in office by his tacit alliance with the most right-wing neo-conservative US President in history and his complete indifference to the suffering their policies have inflicted on those innocents in the Middle East.Aside from the obvious human distress, these bombings will have done more to ease the course of illiberal legislation through Parliament than anything else ever could. Did we not help kill 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women and children?Tony Blair said that terrorists will not threaten our values and our way of life.