I am given to understand Tony Blair is holding an inquiry to establish why so many people have left the Labour Party.

Some 40 years ago, I was watching TV coverage of a Labour Party meeting. A heckler shouted: "Why support savages in Rhodesia?"

Harold Wilson replied: "We don't support savages in Rhodesia, we just allow them into our election meetings."

Three decades later, I joined the Labour Party. I saw Blair as a man of vision who would end 18 years of social injustice caused by the Tory Government.

In 1995, at the Clause 4 debate, I gave the first political speech of my life in support of Blair's reforms. I drew on my experience as a former police officer during the steel strike, the inner city riots and the miners' strike. I said if we had one more term of Tory Government, this country would be a right-wing police state.

I was pictured with Tony Blair thanking me for my support at the end of the meeting.

I was constituency secretary for the Hove Labour Party at the 1997 General Election. Within two years I had walked away in total disgust. It was made clear to me democratic debate was not wanted. Anyone who expressed the concerns of ordinary people at party meetings was not wanted. Anyone who disagreed with the elected councillors or MPs was not wanted.

As for the Tories wanting to turn this country into a right-wing police state. Not even they would have man-handled a frail old man for speaking his mind.

-Stuart Bower, Upper Beeding