IT is interesting to note the attitude of the Government to the demonstrations of concern about excessive fuel prices.

Their condemnation and false accusations of violence and intimidation by pickets do them no credit. The picketing, according to reports, has been almost only peaceful and good humoured.

This is in contrast to the anti-poll tax riots and the last miners' strike which required massed ranks of police to control.

May we assume that the Government will now condemn these actions in retrospect having largely supported them at the time they occurred?

I personally regret the need for direct action, but what else can people do when a government only listens to select focus groups and Islington luvvies and even gags it's own MPs?

They simply don't seem to understand the effects of increased costs on businesses and the incomes of the people who work for them.

ALAN HODSON, Royshaw Close, Blackburn.