Letter: Fight against crime

Sir: Jack Straw's proposals to include "destroyers of GM crop trials" under a new Prevention of Terrorism Bill represents an extreme example of unwise state control over justifiable public protest.

Public concern over technologies which have the potential for catastrophic results (as GMOs certainly do) represents a last-ditch means by which to arrive at sensible decisions. Responsible people do not protest for the fun of it.

Mr Straw would do well to reflect that we owe the relatively low level of danger from nuclear power in Britain very largely to the corporate efforts of numerous protesters - not to government policy.

It might also be helpful to examine the legal means by which ministers who knowingly facilitate a catastrophe by blocking justifiable protests or not insisting on realistic experimental periods for dangerous technologies could, in the event of a disaster, be brought to trial.

GERARD MORGAN-GRENVILLE

Bridport, Dorset