Letter: The reason we mourn

Sir: Now that the sanctimony has abated, would it not be honest to admit the real reason why Britain mourns the loss of John Smith so grievously?

Before his death most of us probably thought of the Labour leader as a likeable, personable, if hardly charismatic, man, but his departure cruelly rams home the contrast with the Gummers, the Portillos, the Redwoods, the Lilleys, the Bottomleys and all the rest of the unlovely crew left behind to govern.

Yours faithfully,

JAN MORRIS

Llanystumdwy,

Gwynedd

14 May