Letter: Hypocrisy and dirty tricks shame Labour

Sir: Your report on the Labour Party using the Freedom of Information Act to allow them to smear their opposition in the coming election campaign fills me with dismay ("Labour uses Information Act to target Michael Howard", 5 February).

I struggle to remember, and consider that I lived through the worst excesses of Margaret Thatcher's government, any such brazen and worrying example of those in power using the "state machine" to further their own political ends.

I would have no qualms about Labour digging into Conservative politicians' backgrounds had the Government been open and honest in their application of the Freedom of Information Act when others request access to information under it. Your own reporting shows that they have not.

As I review this government's "achievements" since 1997, taking the country to war improperly, endlessly manipulating their message to the public, allowing and supporting detention without trial, and now access to information for only the "favoured few", I feel that 1984 has more or less arrived.

ANTHONY PRIME

Crewe, Cheshire