I WOULD like to comment on your front page story on January 20. Would Mr Arnold Wilcox-Wood have been quite so fast to call for this group of people to be moved on by the police if they were a group of Asians?

I think not as he would have had calls of racist levelled against him. Where are young people meant to go in Blackburn?

I was in the town centre on Saturday and I did not find the groups of youths intimidating. What I did find unpleasant was the group of townies consistently charging the moshers and goths who, to their credit, did not retaliate.

The new police powers to disperse groups of people congregating is the thin end of a police state.

I thought we were a democratic country, since Blair took power this country is fast becoming one where free speech and movement will soon become a thing of the past.

KEVIN BENNETT, Clayton Way, Altham.