Letter: Italian power steering

Sir: Patricia Clough's article on Giulio Andreotti (30 March) implies that Italians themselves are responsible for his mis-government because we are supposed to have given him our 'votes, the acceptance, the complicity . . . that enabled them to do what they did for so long'.

The truth is that, just like any other autocrat, he has carefully built his power base to exclude any influence that ordinary Italians may have had. We did not give him power; he took it.

Yours sincerely,

MARIO LAURENZA

Enfield,

Middlesex

30 March