20 APRIL 1956, Page 35

THE LOST LEADER S IR,- -In your issue of April 13 Lord

4 Irkenhead may be pardoned perhaps for °Lbibiting ignorance of age-long democratic practices, but to insinuate that a Prime Minister must never be criticised Or attacked. los being unfair, is merely puerile, particularly i,' as in this case, when he was a principal 1," every major decision, whose evil effects he nluntarily inhibited.

',artin Lindsay is equally to blame; but his g7.nrsDrance may possibly be excused on the b '41nds that it appears io be rife among the ik,ek-bench Tories of this Parliament. As for bo. S. Howard it is inconceivable he really what he writes. He may of course be Itvtng at a club, thus furnishing an excuse. ai' number of your readers, Sir, do not like agree with Our political opinions, but pc Yon we do believe profoundly in the reederns,' of which the right to criticise. Inn erelY and persistently if necessary, includ- 4.°Y Prime Minister, is one. kro 1,gt ask your correspondents if they lq til‘ii" apply the same principles in the future of r. Bevan, or any othcr PM in te process nitionalising all the means of prhoduction, 4t.t:ibution and exchange? And, if not, why