Every Saturday morning for the past two years, Peace Campaigner, David Partridge has spent an hour in Bucky Doo Square patiently spreading his message. As we approach the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq (19 March), Liberal Democrat Parliamenta Mr Partridge, a computer broker in civilian life, he transforms into a peace vigilante on Saturday mornings carrying his hand-painted placards to the town centre to broadcast his anti-war philosophy. Two years on he has lost none of his anti-war passion:

“The peace group was formed out of the people who used to meet every Saturday to protest against going to war in Iraq. When the invasion happened most of them stopped but my personal view was that nothing had changed about the wrongness of the war just because Tony Blair ignored public opinion. Nothing makes war any better.

“I spend an hour a week here. Somebody once said to me: “Haven’t you got anything about not crashing planes into buildings?” and it turned out he was a soldier on standby to go to Iraq. He believed the lie that Iraq had something to do with the World Trade Centre. I don’t believe people should die on the basis of lies - Iraqi people or British people.”

Justine McGuinness, West Dorset Liberal Democrat, commented: “The Liberal Democrats were the only party to oppose the war from the very beginning. Our views on involvement in this military action are well known. Tony Blair took Britain to war on a threat and a promise: the threat of weapons of mass destruction and the promise of focusing attention on the Middle East peace process. Neither has materialised and sadly we can see the tragic consequences. The original - unjustified - use of force has been a powerful growth-agent of terror.”

Charles Kennedy MP, leader of the Liberal Democrats, recently commented on the withdrawal of troops:

“The coalition presence in Iraq is currently legitimised by the United Nations mandate which runs until December. There is nothing to stop us openly setting that as a deadline for the withdrawal of British troops. Such a deadline would inject a new sense of urgency into ensuring that Iraqi defence and security forces are made ready.

“It may well be that there would still be a need for the international community to help provide Iraq’s security beyond that time, but a more suitable answer than a continuation of the occupation by coalition forces would be a proper UN military presence - ideally drawing particularly on troops from predominantly Muslim countries.”