As the election is coming up, I thought it would be a a good idea to draw up a Free Press Pledge. No I'm not referring to my paper, rather the concept.

The document, to be given to every politician to sign, would have a number of key points, starting with a promise to talk to a reporter for at least 15 minutes whenever we ring.

This, of course, could be any hour, day or night. If you are not in, then we expect a call back as soon as possible.

There would be an absolute commitment in the pledge to give a straight and honest response to every question. No party political waffle allowed

Failure to sign the pledge or stick to it would lead to names being printed in the paper under the headline "Politicians who do not believe in a free press".

This may be a completely ridiculous scenario but it shows the sort of effect the CRE had when anti-racism campaigners revealed which politicians had not signed up to the pledge to oppose racism at the forthcoming general election.

They must have realised what the consequences would be, that the MPs would be embarrassed at the very least and at the very worst the innuendo would be that they may be racist.

People such as Michael Portillo, who did not sign, are, of course, not racist, but the incident has caused many to look at the Commission for Racial Equality in a more cynical light and in turn the local organisations which are part of it.

You have to ask whether the CRE was simply exploiting the situation as part of a political agenda to increase its profile, regardless of the consequences.

When the three prospective parliamentary candidates for Wycombe met to sign the CRE document at the offices of the Wycombe Racial Equality Council in March, I thought it looked like a good idea.

They put their names to it before the party leaders did it. It wasn't a high profile event and confirmed the principles by which all the candidates stand.

How wrong can you be. The actions of those who revealed the names has seen the spirit of the CRE compact go out the window.

It has led to pathetic mud-slinging rows between the parties in the media and patronising references to Chicken Tikka Masala (Robin Cook will now need more than a voice coach to save his job after the election).

Politicians seem to be happy using the race issue as the political football to kick around at the moment but you can bet all those promises they make in the next few weeks will be forgotten as soon as the election is over.