BLACKBURN MP Jack Straw has claimed that no further UN-resolution is needed for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq, but this seems untenable.

The Labour Party has always embraced the UN Charter as the basis of its postwar foreign policy, and the Government has no mandate to deviate from this position.

Mr Straw has made the valid point that the US should not be left isolated from world opinion, but it cuts itself off if it flies in the face of the UN.

He will recall from his student days the horror aroused by its B52 bombings of Indo-China and its fruitlessness. Can he help persuade the Bush administration that its present policies are just as counterproductive in the 'war against terrorism?'

It is no use raising such issues only when it suits the agenda of power-politics. Only a UN move towards world government and an international police service empowered to deal with breaches of "minimum standards of democracy and human rights" will suffice.

COUN F R McMANUS (Labour, Langfield Ward, Todmorden Town Council), Longfield Road, Todmorden.