I DON'T mind saying it, but I am worried. Worried that an old man can be manhandled and held under the Terrorism Act for using the word 'nonsense.'

An unpleasant reminder, I thought, of the real nature of New Labour, which does exactly what it wants.

Welcome to Red Soviet Britain of 2005. It seems the lesson learned from Blair's Government over Iraq, about which the Labour conference could not speak on either, is the intolerance of free speech.

The sight of Blair's bouncers hauling an 82-year-old man from his seat was truly sickening, deeply distressing and another indisputable sign of the character of this awful government.

What was Walter Wolfgang going to do -- assault Jack Straw with his pension book? How was he a threat to anyone? Is this what New Labour's Respect Agenda is all about -- frog marching out an elderly party member from amongst their own ranks?

Tony Blair and the Labour Party may have apologised several times for the ugly incident, but it's too late for all that. New Labour's true colour has at last been exposed.

JEAN ALLISON (Mrs), Ramsbottom.