LETTER:Labour's debt to Kinnock

THE feature on Derek Hatton, "Looking after number one" (Sunday Review, 18 June), reminded me what a debt of gratitude the whole Labour movement owes to Neil Kinnock for condemning Militant Tendency at the 1985 conference and for engineering its expulsion from the Labour Party.

With the likes of Hatton on board we would be facing the certainty of oblivion rather than the possibility of government. While others kept their heads down, Kinnock took decisive action to save Labour from this bunch of wide boys and political entrepreneurs. In time I am sure that Kinnock's leadership will be reassessed in this light. It should also be remembered that, far from being revolutionary, Militant was in fact a famously reactionary organisation. In one incredible pronouncement in 1985, the Trotskyist leadership even proclaimed that homosexuality was nothing less than "a deviation that would die out after the revolution".

Sadly, the Militant legacy lives on in the highest council tax in the country. As you pointed out, many of the houses built by Militant's massive borrowing were sold to the tenants at large discounts after three years.

Cllr Paul Bower

London Borough of Hounslow