Letter: Veggies do not need fairweather friends

Sir: Roderick Grant (letter, 2 July) deplores what he calls 'holier than thou' intolerance in vegetarians who expect their principles to be accommodated when visiting meat-eating friends yet who, when themselves playing host to those same friends, do not accommodate their taste for eating dead flesh.

To vegetarians, needlessly taking life is immoral, as well as being a danger to health. Most of us believe that 'not until we extend the circle of compassion to include all living things, shall we ourselves know peace'.

If cooking a few beans for veggie friends is going to 'extraordinary lengths', I would think that they could well dispense with such a fragile friendship. Yours faithfully,

PETER GALBRAITH

Northampton