27 AUGUST 2005, Page 17

Doubly ungallant

From Matthew Hall

Sir: While normally an admirer of Mark Steyn’s abrasive and incisive style, his assertion (‘Hold your tears’, 20 August) that Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war protester camped outside Crawford Ranch, ‘is having a mental breakdown in public’ was ungallant and therefore reprehensible.

He made an excellent point — that certain Democrats are cynically exploiting her grief at the death of her soldier son in Iraq — but then to describe her as indulging in ‘a narcissistic rage’ was to be doubly ungallant. If she is ill, then any further comment on her behaviour is just plain bullying.

Please continue to tilt amusingly at the whingeing lefties, Mr Steyn, but don’t become infected by their churlish habits.

Matthew Hall Monmouth