General Sir Richard Dannatt said troops should leave "sometime soon" because they were exacerbating the security situation.

I think he is right.

On a personal level, there is nothing wrong with the British soldiers, but I am against having them here.

There is almost zero trust between the two sides

The British troops operate as an occupying force; not as troops supporting our own forces.

Until now there has been no meaningful co-operation between British troops and the local government that I can see. They work according to their own thinking and policy.

Even if they are trying to consult the local government, they are the ones steering the situation, both on a sectarian level and on security issues.

I'm not saying they should take their orders from local politicians, but they should co-operate in a meaningful way.

At the beginning it wasn't so bad, but now there is almost zero trust between the two sides.

They drive through the streets of town without knowing who the local government officers are, they don't know where they are going or what they're doing.

They raid so many houses and arrest so many people and the government knows nothing about it beforehand. So we don't trust them.

British troops have handed control of two provinces to Iraqi forces

They should announce a timetable for their departure. I believe Basra is ready for the troops to leave now.

The local security troops use the presence of the British troops to relax.

When anything happens in the city, they blame the interference of the British soldiers for the trouble - and use it as an excuse not to take action themselves.

Then the public believes the local security forces on this.

We don't want to see British tanks and armoured vehicles on the streets of Basra on their own. They should be with the Iraqi security forces.

If British troops raid a house on their own, and afterwards the residents claim the soldiers stole things; who should we believe? It's hard to know if there are no Iraqi forces with them.

Most of the people here in Basra are hoping the British soldiers will leave.

They arrest too many people. They dominate the Basra police and security forces. This is what Basra people think.

Britain has more than seven thousand troops in Iraq

We feel they rule us and this is not acceptable.

At night, they are always patrolling in their vehicles and arresting people. They take our weapons at checkpoints. This should be done by the Iraqi police, not them.

You find two checkpoints - one manned by Iraqi police, and 10m away, another is manned by the British.

It is strange. It's as if we have two governments.

There should be a timetable for the departure of UK troops.

But I also believe that if the troops leave now, the security situation won't improve. Our policemen and our military are not ready yet to take care of security in Basra.

A year from now would be a good departure date. This will be enough time to train the Iraqi police.

We also need the British government to try to teach some of our officials in government how to deliver better services to the Iraqi people.

Democracy is something that's missing in Iraq. People don't understand what that means. If you want democracy you have to educate people - and then you can apply it.