IT seems that every time a new government takes the reins of power they feel the need to take the opposite stance of the previous politicians that were in power.

Our previous Government befriended Gaddafi and in return his son, Saif, gave £2m to the London School of Economics in 2009 and lucrative business contracts were sealed.

Saif was also a recent guest of Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace.

David Cameron came along and decided a regime of change in Libya and overthrow Gaddafi. William Hague invited all the NATO members to Downing Street to get them on board under the pretext of safeguarding civilians.

The war was their idea initially.

However, this clearly was not the real aim as Cameron wanted to get our military commanders to kill Gaddafi to hurry up and put a clean end to the operation.

This was in direct conflict with the Geneva Convention. The remit was to protect civilians not to murder Gaddafi.

The new Government in Libya has hoisted the black and menacing flag of Al Qaeda above the new Parliament. Even worse the new law is to be Sharia.

All women in Libya are now second-class citizens and will lose numerous freedoms and rights that they had under Gaddafi.

Al Qaeda is now in power thanks to the stupidity of Hague and Cameron.

I believe they embarked on this folly purely to prove how very different they are in principles to the previous Government.

Susan Thomas, Oxford