The case for law and order
Sir: If Giles Playfair has been misunder- stood (Letters, 8 August), he has no one but himself to blame.
It is he, not his critics, who chose to draw a parallel as between, on the one hand, students forcibly breaking up a Greek cul- tural occasion, and on the other a hypotheti- cal riot to protest against a hypothetical cele- bration of the Soviet Union's assault on Czechoslovakia.
Hence he should not be surprised that this patently absurd comparison is derided; and it is pointed out for good measure that the Greek colonels have not committed aggression on any of their neighbours, while the Red Army choir, even during the anni- versary of Russian aggression, was unmo- lested by the self-appointed, albeit wholly selective, champions of freedom. That this latter reflection is not in Mr Playfair's term 'original' only reinforces the reality of that selectivity.
In fact I do not-think we misunderstood Mr Playfair at all. On holiday I have not the reference books to do other than paraphrase another 'unoriginal', but nonetheless perti- nent remark, by, I believe, George Orwell —The besetting sin of the left is that it is always so reluctant to condemn any other than authoritarian regimes of the right. Frederic Bennett Cwmllecoediog, Aberangell, Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire
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