DON'T let the picture fool you. I am NOT smiling.

It's got nothing to do with feelings that I might be losing my hair or that Eric the referee - despite being in his 50s - can sprint 50 yards quicker than I can, or for that matter than I ever could.

The problem is I'm thinking about weapons of mass destruction in my sleep.

And so, I'm sure, is the Foreign Secretary.

Week after week, month after month the saga has continued and it took another turn this week when everybody who is anybody, from Hans Blix to the CIA came out and said there were no real Weapons of Mass Destruction to be found in Iraq.

Now it's the 'imaginary WMDs' that we were after - the kind that apparently don't exist in among 'friendly nations'.

It's become a bit of farce.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, there are those who will stick to their guns and continue to make all of us look like a bunch of muppets.

It seems someone in the government has forgotten to tell the normal 'Abdul' (I would use Bob but I don't know any) that this is what politics is all about.

Say and do one thing and then a couple of years later change your mind and do something else.

And then when someone asks you about what you did before, just say you never did it - even when you are caught on camera saying it.

It's like being in a relationship and then finding out you were lied to for ages.

And when you do find out the truth she never admits it. (Not that it's happened to me but I have a friend who's always getting busted).

But, unlike those who despair at how it's all gone wrong and turn their back on their roots and move to an estate like Beardwood or something, I still feel that the greatest thing about this country is that no matter what, sooner or later the truth always comes out.

And when it does it's amazing how quickly everyone changes sides.

They say you shouldn't trivialise such important subjects when lives are at stake but with the kind of answers our politicians have been giving us recently, it seems you have to learn all you can from your peers.

It looks like the message isn't getting across.

This weekend the masses will again gather in London for another anti-war demonstration and I did promise Mathew that I would give it a mention.

Coaches will be departing from Worldchoice Travel in Accrington and the main bus station in Blackburn at 6am on Saturday morning.

The views expressed in this column are the columnist's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph