Letter: Difficult Labour

Sir: So according to your "insider's guide to the rival wings of New Labour" (2 June), John Monks is viewed as a "moderniser" who "nevertheless supports Swinton Rugby League Club". Good grief, does this mean New Labour views the support of rugby league as a revisionist trait? Can I no longer support the London Broncos without a feeling of guilt that I am undermining Tony Blair's entire administration?

But then, we all know about rugby league don't we, all those whippets and flat caps and oh, how wonderfully quaint and Northern and working- class it is - all this and that poor man Monks still expects to be taken seriously as a progressive voice in the Labour movement!

VINCENT JAMES MORGAN

London NW6