NEW Labour pressures to cut trade union links with the Labour Party on the spurious pretext of removing suspicions of undue influence should be vigorously opposed by party members and trade unionists alike.

To equate trade union affiliations with donations from fat cats - who, coincidentally, find themselves in positions of power and influence in the party - is perverse.

They can only have come from New Labour fundamentalists who regard a special relationship with business and George Bush as more important than the one with the unions that founded the Labour Party.

Trade unions have never been more important in defending the interests of working people than they are today.

The business interests to which New Labour has tied its wagon in its economic and "public" spending policies are busy baling out their mismanagement by attacking pension rights and the conditions of employment of workers.

At the same time, they're milking the public purse for all its worth through public-private partnerships and PFI deals that will ensure their income for decades, however the stock market performs.

It's ironic that the taxpayer should guarantee the income of private consortiums but that the income of retired workers from pension funds are subject to the vagaries of the stock market and can be cut at a stroke.

Trade union influence on the Labour Party is legitimate and constitutional, and it defines the party.

If it is severed, it will be New Labour who will find themselves in the wilderness, and not the Labour Party, which can always be reborn.

PETER NIELSEN,

Worcester,

Worcs.