LETTER:Reg Prentice's Tory precedent

From Mr Peter Hitchens

Sir: Polly Toynbee complains that some of the attacks on Emma Nicholson were motivated by a dislike of women ("Why do they hate her so much?" 4 January). She may be right in other cases, but my Daily Express article, quoted no less than three times in the attached montage, cannot be criticised on these grounds.

I wrote of "her teenage grasp of political reality" and suggested that she sought the sweets of office and fame. I also said (indisputably, I believe) that "the poor woman has no idea what she thinks". I would cheerfully say the same about that poor man Alan Howarth, now pretending to enjoy himself in the same party as Dennis Skinner.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Hitchens

Editor

Daily Express

London, SE1

4 January