Although I always hold strong opinions on everything, I'm usually a bit too lazy to act on them. Emmerdale comes on telly and I'm much more likely to throw crisps at the screen than get up to find the remote.

But for once I felt compelled to act on my beliefs, and late on Friday night when I was in a worryingly impulsive mood, I decided to go marching for peace in London the next day (I'm just glad it was the march I decided on, not the £60 shoes from the catalogue - who knows what I was capable of in that frame of mind).

I simply wanted to be part of it, to stand up for what I believe in and for people to take notice of what I and a million others in Britain wanted - peace. I'm no dippy hippie who talks to trees, but what really surprised me on the march was that there was no section of society that the marchers all fitted into. There was every class, sex, age and race but we were all fighting for the same thing.

The march itself was a fantastic experience, and once I got over my inhibitions I joined in with the chants of "Bush, Blair, CIA - how many kids have you killed today" and, a personal favourite "Bush, we don't want your pretzels of mass destruction". Apart from the murderous chants, it was just a friendly and effective demo - and a load of pacifists are a pretty safe lot to be amongst.

I know that I know nothing of war, and perhaps I'm not old or wise enough to have an opinion anyway, but I can't see how violence will solve it when it didn't the last time we invaded Iraq. I'm certainly not on Saddam's side but I just think that war is not the answer, especially war without much evidence or reason.

But, despite my efforts on Saturday, when I open a newspaper and see the headline "Countdown to War" I know that conflict is imminent, and there's really not a lot us mortals can do to stop it. It's not "if" anymore, it's "when" and I'm sure that "when" will be answered by "soon".

Updated: 10:55 Wednesday, February 19, 2003