IN response to Joanne Donnelly and others in last week's Citizen.

Essentially what I'm saying is that we should weigh our words carefully, particularly when tempted to single out individuals for blame.

Of course politicians have to be accountable and to a large extent we're all fair game. However I do feel that the public reviling of one person has gone too far, partly because I actually do believe that there are issues of race, culture and history which make some people particularly vulnerable.

There's a good debate to be had about Macpherson's message that racism is a matter of subjective judgement not least because it has profound practical and moral implications for us all.

I would be very pleased to join in the discussion, especially if it should attend to the the more subtle and complex issues which seemed to completely escape some of last week's contributors. More particularly, if it means that we look afresh at the ways in which we understand the experience of people who some might not readily characterise as victims.

I think that we might also raise the tone of the debate and recognise that this all goes way beyond the situation of one individual by allowing one person in particular that privacy that the electorate have so recently conferred.

Hilton Dawson MP

House of Commons

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.