It is highly unlikely that police forces have stopped spying on protest groups and politicians, say Donal O’Driscoll and Eveline Lubbers . Hence the importance of the undercover policing inquiryWe must disagree with Paul Mason’s assessment that we should simply “bury the paranoia and move on” (Stella Rimington should stop fuelling paranoid fantasies about Jeremy Corbyn, G2, 17 October). It is highly unlikely that spying on protest groups and politicians has ceased. Though the two main undercover policing units have been disbanded, across the country police maintain “domestic extremism” (what in past times was known as counter-subversion) monitoring units, and these units work hand in hand with the secret services. Dr Donal O’Driscoll (core participant in the Undercover Policing inquiry)Dr Eveline LubbersUndercover Research Group• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

Source: The Guardian October 18, 2017 18:00 UTC