Letter: Public and private

Sir: The Robin Cook saga has again posed the question, "Is a person's private behaviour relevant to their public performance?" Of those who claim that episodes of human fallibility in private are proof of hitherto undiscovered public inadequacies I ask for evidence, for the reverse is often the case.

The world of politics is littered with people whose private inadequacies would initially lead one to think them incapable of their public roles, but they seemed to cope. Churchill's fondness for a dram didn't prevent him leading the nation through the Second World War, Lloyd George's predilection for the opposite sex didn't prevent him leading the country and at least one ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer has had some difficulty remembering to pay his Visa bill.

Conversely, wasn't Adolf Hitler reputedly very good with children?

LAWRENCE ROBERTS

Winterton, Lincolnshire