I WAS astonished to see my local Liberal Democrat councillor Mrs Karimeh Foster, on the main 10 o'clock news on Tuesday, warmly greeting suspended Labour MP George Galloway to Blackburn.

This is the same George Galloway who met Saddam Hussein and said "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability."

Mr Galloway also said that "I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life." (interview in The Guardian, September 16, 2002).

Perhaps Mr Galloway forgets about the thousands of innocent (mainly Muslim) people killed by the Soviet regime in the invasion of Afghanistan?

Does the local and national Liberal Democrat Party endorse Mr Galloway's comments? Why is a local Whitehall councillor getting involved with a Glasgow MP speaking in Blackburn with such strange views?

M J ARBLES (Mr), Cemetery Road, Darwen.