Letter: Smear on police

Sir: The Lawrence inquiry has shown what the Conservatives they have become - an opposition with no conception of its role.

They have set themselves up as a little party-political guerrilla band whose chosen sport seems to be hunting the scalps of as many ministers as they can, regardless of the underlying issue. This time, they have decided to use the error of judgement by the Lawrence inquiry team in publishing the names of police informants to add Jack Straw to their collection.

Do they think that making political capital out of what should be a bipartisan issue, the battle against racism in our public institutions, will earn them the gratitude of the victims of this error, or of the Lawrence family or of the British public? Do they imagine that they are performing a useful function in attempting to crucify a minister who had the integrity, which they lacked, to set up this inquiry, because he had the effrontery to go on a weekend break with his family?

ALAN MURRAY

Dorking, Surrey