Letter: Why we shouldn't speak ill of Italy

Sir: I was glad you published a letter (5 June) defending Signor Ronchey, the Italian government minister who is collecting money for restoration of the Uffizi and who earlier decreed that all government museums and galleries should be open to the public every day (unlike ours).

However, your 'Pembroke' column of 4 June included a cheap and nasty anti-Italian sneer, inviting us to laugh at the headline 'Italy fights to prevent money laundering'. Is there no money-laundering here which we should fight? Or other forms of financial malpractice?

Which of the two countries, Italy and the United Kingdom, is conducting a thorough spring-clean of its public life?

In which country is it now known how political parties are funded? In which country is the judiciary able to initiate and conduct inquiries without waiting (like Lord Justice Scott) for the executive to instruct them?

Your excellent correspondent in Italy, Patricia Clough, gives us much food for thought. Her colleagues in London should duly ponder, and are ill advised to cackle and throw stones.

Yours faithfully,

C. L. MANTON

Bristol

6 June