IN a democracy there is plenty of room for argument about taxation policies, including those on fuel. What I find completely unacceptable, is for one pressure group to attempt to force their views on the rest of the nation by attempting to strangle our economic life to get their way.

I believe many people, perhaps a big majority, are saying they think the price of petrol is too high. This has been translated in opinion polls into indicating that most people believe a democratically elected government must give way and accede to the demands of a few hundred protesters drawn from highly vocal pressure groups, and backed by much of Britain's right-wing press.

These newspapers denounced the miners so vociferously when they (mistakenly in my view) attempted to do the same.

There are a number of highly suspect factors in the present dispute. Not many people appear to know that farmers benefit already from a huge diesel subsidy.

Fuel used in tractors and on the land costs only a third of the diesel purchased by the general user at the filling station.

Red diesel for the farmer attracts excise duty of only £3.13 a litre. No wonder one expert has said it is a mystery to him why farmers are protesting about the Government's approach to fuel duty when agriculture gets such special treatment.

The case for a reduction of duty for road hauliers is a much stronger one, but even they have no right to force their views on all of us at the barricades.

At some time in the future some investigative journalist will surely write a book on the origins of this dispute, and dealing in particular with the strange lethargy of the big oil companies in their dealings with their drivers.

Apparently at one big oil depot only four 'pickets' were keeping all the drivers in the base. Yet when the Prime Minister talked in tough language to their top executives, action started fairly quickly. Why were they sitting on their hands?

The curious letter from a Dr David Stuart Hill of Huddersfield, published in the BEN, excites my interest. He describes himself as Chief Executive of the World Innovation Foundation.

What on earth is that, and has anyone ever heard of it? Does its headquarters lie in the attic of Dr Hill's house?

(name and address supplied)