Letter: Emasculated mayor

Sir: Deborah Orr does not manage to distance herself from the bigoted blue-rinse brigade which deselected Steven Norris from the Tory list of candidates in the London mayoral contest ("Hypocrisy, cant and the morass of public morals", 14 December). In fact she exposes herself as one of them. Let us not forget that there are entire civilisations in this world which function quite well without the dogma of monogamy.

A politician's private life is his business and the business of those who share it. Every time I read discussions like these, I see President Mitterrand's funeral cortege, in which his widow and his mistress walked side by side. Was that scandalous? To me, those two women sent a message that it was nobody's business why exactly they were there.

I wish Mr Norris no success in his campaign, because my preference is for somebody else. But it is sad to see how capable candidates are dumped for the wrong reasons, to make place for squeaky-clean eunuchs.

ANTOINE A H WONDERS

Frimley, Surrey