Letter: Attacks on Fayed

Sir: I appear to be missing something. Can anyone please tell me why Mr Fayed is universally treated with the same opprobrium as a convicted paedophile?

He has been insulted regularly by the beneficiaries, direct and indirect, of his largess such as Neil Hamilton.

He has been execrated by such diverse enemies as Roy Jenkins and The Daily Mail. Private Eye devotes much of its fortnightly coverage to cheap jibes at him - even insulting him in the week he buried his son.

He has been refused a British passport by a succession of Home Secretaries of right and left.

It seems that the entire British media and political elites are united in detestation of him and therefore no quarter need be given in heaping ordure on his head.

Yet what is the case against him? He has no criminal convictions in this country. He has a contempt for corrupt and ungrateful politicians and he believes that some of them can be bought - views which many of us share.

He is rich and successful and he probably is, I have little doubt, a sharp and ruthless businessman. He has used his money to consolidate his position as the owner of Britain's most famous shop. He also owns a famous football club which he has improved at his own expense. He successfully defended himself against libel by buying the best legal skills available, which he is fully entitled to do. Yet he has never sued the many who have libelled him.

This is a pretty conclusive case. Why isn't he a member of the House of Lords?

CHRIS PAYNE

Uxbridge,

Middlesex