An Addingham couple are picking up where John Lennon and Yoko Ono left off - and taking to their bed for peace this Valentine's Day.

Andrew and Christine Gale have chosen to spend tomorrow holding a bedroom 'love in' to protest against UK involvement in a war against Iraq.

The couple begin their 1960s flavoured, 24 hour vigil for peace at midnight tonight in their home at Old Station Road.

And they are hoping their example will inspire others to promote 'love not war' on what is traditionally the most romantic day of the year.

Mr Gale said the protest was also a way of registering opposition to the war locally, without having to travel to London on Saturday for a peace rally which is expected to attract one million people.

He said: "Since many people cannot make the peace march in London for various reasons, for example if they are disabled or have to look after their kids, and so on, we are staging a 24 hour 'lie in bed', as John Lennon and Yoko Ono did during the Vietnam

War."

The gesture is being supported by the Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which is also organising coaches to Saturday's rally from towns across the region.

Mrs Gale was keen to stress the serious reasons behind the good humoured stunt - and to issue a warning to the world's leaders.

She said: "We're doing this so we can sleep at night, without worrying about the slaughter of innocent women and children being murdered by the US and the UK bombs.

"If this does not persuade Blair and Bush, we'll consider doing a blue movie to show the leaders how to make love not war! They have been warned - peace or else!"

The Gales' love-in has received widespread media coverage and follows on from Burley-in-Wharfedale schoolboy Nicholas Lockyer's example.

The eight-year-old wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, last week urging him to save lives by not leading the country into war - and to persuade US president George Bush to do the same.