Attempts by police to prevent anti-Chinese demonstrations in the Mall were ill-judged, and show how this Government can sometimes get things spectacularly wrong.

While recognising that China is handling the transition from rigid Communism to a market economy in a far better way than Russia, it is still necessary to be able to indicate that there is disagreement with some of the Chinese government's actions.

For the British authorities to use the police force like some third world dictatorship is out of keeping with New Labour's stated principles.

To parade the president of a Communist country around in this Ruritanian fashion is backward looking; and for him to agree to ride up the Mall in a vehicle which symbolises 19th century imperialism is an astounding error of judgement on his part.

For the Metropolitan Police to say they suppressed the demonstrations without Government orders was hopeful duplicity on a Serbian scale.

New Labour cannot afford to make mistakes like this, and following Jack Straw's massaging of the police recruitment figures, it is becoming increasingly obvious that they are losing sight of what they stand for.

Andy Baldock,

Villa Grove,

Heworth Green,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.