LETTER: Looking for the good in people

Well, something about the village of Manfield certainly seems to have got to your writer Amanda Mitchison ("The death threat's in the post", 8 April).

I take it this is the same Amanda Mitchison who reports from the grimmest of dictatorships, objectivity intact? But send her to a commuter hamlet in North Yorkshire and she completely loses her cool. "I hate their glinting alarm systems and their ubiquitous this is a good neighbourhood stickers..."

I suppose no one should be surprised to see the victims being blamed, but it is worth reiterating that the story is about people being bullied by an anonymous letter-writer. The fact that their hedge-trimming, car- polishing, middle-class way of life is not to Ms Mitchison's taste doesn't make them bad people.

And as for the jibe about the "Leek Club" being "spineless", would she honestly prefer it if members of this vigilante organisation in embryo went out and acted upon their suspicions rather than merely grumbling over a pint or two? I think not.

john lucas

London N16