Letter: Labour props up elective dictatorship

Sir: As the Labour prime minister responsible for the "winter of discontent", Lord Callaghan ("Labour fooled by the Tories, Callaghan says", 19 December) should be the last person to advise Tony Blair on New Labour's future relationship with the trade unions.

If Labour gets defeated at the next general election, it will not be due to what the New Labour has or has not done, but because the Tories will, for the nth time, show the television footage of the "winter of discontent" and the unforgettable images of London streets littered with mountains of putrefying garbage and cemeteries with unburied bodies.

Thank you, Lord Callaghan, for your advice!

M RIAZ HASAN

Harrow, Middlesex