WHEN you first allocated a column to MP Jack Straw, I, as a Conservative, had misgivings. To be fair to the Foreign Secretary, he has up until now used his space to report -- somewhat tediously -- on his day-to-day activities.

However, he decided on a bit of party politicking with his dire warning on the European Union (LET, September 11).

It is not the Conservative Party's policy to leave the union, as he well knows.

KEITH REYNOLDS, 13a Wyre Crescent, Darwen.