Unfortunately like the reading of the list of the dead in Parliament, the writing of 'personal' letters, something always trailed in the BBC and other organs of State spin, has just served to sanitise the process of violent death.

The dead are not the 'Glorious' dead, they were shredded to bloody pulp in support of a failed policy that has no aim. Morale is being affected not by the deaths per se but by the sheer pointlessness of it all.

I don't think anybody comes out of this with credit, Mrs Janes can be forgiven as she is beyond grief and anger. The Sun, Brown and Mandelson cannot. They have all reduced serious politics to the level of a punch and judy show.

Yet again anything Brown touches turns to dust.

Will it be better under the Tories I very much doubt it.

OK. I figure you could say entirely justified bad things about Brown till the cows come home. But I am not sure he should be getting beaten up over writing this letter.

He didn't have to write it. I bet the guys CO would have done a better job already. I guess it was just something Brown felt he ought to do. Like it was right.

As far as I know he didn't advertise it, so possibly spin was not on his agenda. He didn't have to hand write it either. Must have figured it would mean more hand written.

Everyone has got to admit he is probably pretty busy messing up the country, so he has to make time to write the letter.

If he had got it typed up by an aid and signed it he would have been better off.

The guy has bad eyesight, probably miss-read the names off a briefing and his real failing is not getting it proof read after.

So I say beat up on him for sure. He absolutely deserves it... but maybe not for this.

This is the action of The Sun, not a bereaved loving mother

I agree with Jim - the irony of it!

Generally, on any aspect of military matters, I pop over to ARSSE to see what the men involved think of it.

The overall feeling seems to be that The Sun is out of order, but that Brown, (who bears the appellation "nob" throughout) although he gets some kudos for handwriting it, has been pathetic in getting the name wrong. One poster outlines the checks and double checks the military use for their letters, which puts Brown to shame.

Personally, I believe these letters to be a political stunt. The Queen sends letters (rather better letters, one suspects) but then the Royal Family have close ties with the military. From that point of view, I don't subscribe to the viewpoint that the letters are appalling because he is three quarters blind.

If he genuinely did care, he would realise that these letters are important to the recipient and he would make sure the letters stood up.

Let's not forget that in his telephone conversation he refers to his copy of the letter.

This was not Brown labouriously scratching out a heartfelt missive. This was dashed off without any real conviction several weeks after the man was killed. It then went through the Downing Street admin machine to be copied, filed and posted. No one cared about the contents of the letter, merely that political duty had been done.

For this reason I can understand the lady's reaction, but the telephone recording is a bridge too far.

Well said.

Sadly, Cameron and his mentor Hilton are PR spinners by nature and nuture. It has to be rememember that the Heir to Blair was elected to counteract ten years of Blair spin and spivery. Relatively honest politics had been tried with Major, Hague, IDS and Howard and in my view the Tories had given up hope that decency would prevail when they fell for Cameron's style over substance approach. Rebranding - bah, humbug.

Soon after Cameron's election, Blair's spin and spivery was recognised for what it was and Blair was elbowed out. The Tories however were stuck with a leader who had been elected in Blair's image.

I don't hold out much hope for a straight forward honest Government lead by the Heir to Blair.

I've just listened to the Janes tape and I don't see anything wrong with what she's said to Brown.