I take issue with your editorial suggesting the row over Downing Street and its role in the arrangements for the funeral of the Queen Mother is an irrelevance (June 17).

For the publicity-hungry Blairs to take newspapers to the Press Complaints Commission on a whim, which later had to be withdrawn, is an abuse of power and strikes right at the heart of Britain's free press.

A free press and the role of apolitical parliamentary figures such as Black Rod are essential in preserving the democratic freedoms we all enjoy. Both have come under attack from the Prime Minister - the press through dubious use of the Press Complaints Commission, and Black Rod through a smear campaign when he refused to connive with Downing Street.

I am pleased to be a representative of the Conservatives who are trying to uphold these freedoms, rather than New Labour which strives to corrupt these freedoms at every opportunity.

Robert Goodwill MEP,

Yorkshire and The Humber,

Conservative,

Terrington,

York.

Updated: 10:57 Friday, June 21, 2002