Letter: Gay rights anomaly

Sir: You kindly allowed me space to take issue with your leading article earlier in the year, when I pointed out that enthusiasm for Edwina Currie MP's move to lower the age of consent for gay men should be tempered in so far as it did not extend to Northern Ireland. Your paper has not yet recorded that this defect was remedied last week when an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill moved by Kate Hoey MP was passed by 254 votes to 141.

If readers were to write to you about other anomalies in the domestic protection of human rights, would Westminster deliver similarly prompt reform? A daily Human Rights Watch column to match your Sunday sister paper's Quangowatch would be welcome.

Yours,

SIMON LEE

The Queen's University

Belfast

18 April