I AM appalled at the attitude taken by some writers to this column, regarding the protests at the oil refineries.

Having watched and listened to the news bulletins and updates, not once have I seen or heard about confrontation between the police, protesters and tanker drivers, other than peaceful persuasion, and demonstrations of support from all walks of society, all within the law.

Yes I know that to people involved in the rat race, where money and greed reign supreme, that being caught up behind a slow moving convoy of taxis and heavy goods vehicles is very inconvenient, especially if you have to be somewhere in a hurry, but spare a thought for the people, protesting on everyone's behalf, against the now exorbitant price of petrol and diesel.

Year after year, governments have hiked up the tax on so-called "soft targets", and because people have said that enough is enough, can that be wrong ? I have never yet met anyone who thinks that they are getting a good deal for what they pay for fuel.

This was NOT a political dispute, as some of your writers would have us believe. It is purely and simply about the OPEC price rises, on top of the 72p tax in every pound being the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The suggestion that the police should have moved in heavy-handedly to break up the protesters was surely written in frustration. How could the police be expected to act when the law is not being broken?

The protests were orderly and peaceful. The access roads to and from the refineries were open. Don't blame the protesters if the tanker drivers refused to take out the fuel, perhaps they were sympathetic to the cause of the protesters. Essential supplies of fuel were coming out of the refineries and guaranteed to continue, so don't put the blame on the protesters.

If that fuel was not going where it should, the fact that the people receiving these supplies couldn't evolve a system to get their priorities right ie doctors, nurses, health care workers etc, is hardly the fault of the protesters.

As far as the public in general is concerned, panic buying certainly didn't help, all that did was to dry up the supply far quicker.

Now we hear about the panic buying of food from the supermarkets. We hear on the television of one family lashing out £700 in one go on food. Talk about a siege mentality.

"Pull the ladder up Jack, I'm all right'.

Jack Sinclair

Rawson Road

Bolton