Letter: Left-wing dementia

Sir: I don't want to be pompous about this, but I thought Suzanne Moore's description of me as "barking" and in the grip of a "right-wing dementia" (Comment, 13 May) was itself pretty demented, disproportion being one of the measures of a want of judgement.

So I discovered that life's experiences didn't quite match up to the theory and blueprint as mapped by early socialist-anarcho-feminism? So what! Are you allowed to learn by your mistakes? Or do you have to go around shrieking "property is theft" all you life just because you said it aged twenty-two and a half?

As Suzanne's little scribblings will be forgotten while Paul Johnson remains a world-class author and historian for many long years to come, I feel it would be incongruous for me to comment further on her diatribe against him. But this point should be made about the case: Catholics are taught that they must affirm a Christian ideal even where they fail to live up to it. And many men and women do believe in marriage and family life even though they don't always live up to the ideal. They are still entitled to uphold the ideal.

MARY KENNY

London SW1