LETTER:Royal divorce: a monarchist's loyalty betrayed

Sir: Censorship takes many forms. The latest example can be seen in the case of Ron Davies MP, who seems to have been forced to retract the statement of an honest opinion on a topic of public interest by pressure as much from his own party as from their opponents ("Blair faces backlash over royal apology", 4 March).

De facto censorship is being deployed as part of an electioneering strategy.

Mr Davies, like every other citizen, has every right to voice his opinion and the rest of us the right to hear it.

This kind of attempted censorship depends upon our being persuaded that there are matters we should not discuss and that to do so would be in poor taste, or destructive, or disloyal or, worst of all, harmful to the Party's prospects. The welcome attempt on your part to render respectable and constructive the discussion of constitutional alternatives will fail unless this kind of censorship is resisted.

David Bell

Oxford