Letter: Ambridge lobby

Sir: Your report that the Secretary of State for the Environment has changed his mind on the planting of lucrative flax in an East Sussex site of special scientific interest surely has little to do with the merits of nature conservation. Rather it has everything to do with the fact that Simon Pemberton, middle-class hate figure and certain Tory in The Archers, intended to replant the whole of Grange Farm with it once the Grundys were evicted.

Mr Gummer's political antennae remain as finely tuned as his research assistant's radio.

CHRIS MOORHOUSE

Sheffield