15 JULY 1989, Page 22

Mistaken impression

Sir: Even allowing for Mrs Thatcher's personal intervention, Michael Trend did indeed fight a most interesting and spirited Euro-campaign (`Blue greenhouse effect', 1 July).

Under the mistaken impression that I was attending a meeting in another consti- tuency I turned up at one of his on the Thursday before polling day. There were about 25 of us, mostly assorted eccentrics like myself, ready to needle the candidates about almost anything. There was one drunk but he left early.

Despite a spirited performance in gener- al the Conservative candidate seemed to be rather at sea when it came to defence and disarmament. He demonstrated an engag- ing innocence about the whole disarma- ment process. In the end he explained that in his judgment in areas of conflict where one side possessed nuclear weapons it could only make for peace if the other side were similarly provided. Any connection between this opinion and the (multilateral) Non-Proliferation Treaty seemed remote.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 22-24 Underwood Street, London N1