Letter: Unfair to Straw

Tara Kumar Mukherjee
Sunday 22 August 1999 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: Your criticism of Jack Straw, "The saloon bar `wisdom' of the Home Secretary" (20 August), is unduly harsh, and to suggest that Mr Straw is "looking at the world through stereotypes" is unfair.

The remarks of the Home Secretary about Gypsies and Travellers were made in answer to questions on a radio station about a local police chief who had sent a force of 100 officers to police a Gypsy wedding in Coventry.

There is nothing in his statement that even implies that the law for travelling people should be different from the law for everyone else. The New Labour government is far more positive on issues relating to race than the previous 18 years of a Conservative government.

TARA KUMAR MUKHERJEE

President, Confederation of Indian Organisations (UK)

London SE1

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in