Cherie Blair, the poll tax and what barristers have to do : LETTERS

DESPITE the subsequent criticism your newspaper was right to publish the story of Cherie Booth and the poll tax defaulter. Serious issues of public concern still surround poll tax debt prosecutions following decisions in the High Court that imprisonment of people too poor to pay is unlawful and in the European Commission on Human Rights that debtors wrongfully committed to jail should be compensated and legal aid should be available for committal cases.

Cherie Booth's anxiety that a defaulter should be returned to jail while allegedly accepting that "there is no evidence that [the defaulter] has any means at all" raises serious legal issues. Your newspaper was right to publicise this.

Chris Lamb Coventry