23 MARCH 1996, Page 29

Collective deafness

Sir: The Duff Cooper Prize must not be allowed to degenerate into a game of Chi- nese whispers. However, pace Joan Bake- well (Diary, 2 March), Gitta Sereny did not make a pointless and tasteless comparison of Lady Thatcher with Albert Speer. Rather, she drew attention to the similarity between our former Prime Minister's response to Iraq's treatment of the Kurds and that of Pope Pius XII's to the Holo- caust. Both appeared to feel that the fact that they had not been informed 'officially' absolved them from making a moral response. Perhaps the answer to all this col- lective deafness is a simple ceremony involving the adornment of the speechmak- ers with throat-mikes.

Richard Eeles

Colton Farm, Nettlecombe, Williton, Taunton, Somerset