QUESTION:What does the controversial bronze statue on Blackburn's boulevard have in common with Iraq's evil dictator Saddam Hussein, and the late Sir Matt Busby?

ANSWER: Mick Major!

For the 64-year-old art foundry worker from Hampshire has worked on the Boulevard sculpture, a lifesize statue of the legendary Manchester United folk hero, and touched up property belonging to the Iraqi president!

Mick paid a flying visit to Blackburn to add the finishing touches to the £25,000 piece of art, which he and colleagues moulded at Morris Singer Art Foundry in Basingstoke.

Sculptor, Alan Wilson, wanted another coat of dark colouring painting onto the mother and child statue, and Mick is a dab hand with the brush...as Saddam Hussain knows.

For just before the Gulf War, Mick travelled to Iraq with fellow Morris Singer workers to construct the multi-million pound bronze Victory Arches in Baghdad - and the company is still counting the cost - £327,000 for a job Saddam allegedly never paid for.

Mick, whose CV includes jobs on statues of the ex-President of Turkey and the Horses of Helius in London's Piccadilly Circus said: "I somehow don't think we'll ever see the money." The new statue in Blackburn caused a public outcry when it was unveiled last month. Mick said: "I had a lot of enquiries from people asking me what I was doing. There were also a few rude comments about how much it cost but I just turn a blind eye."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.