2 APRIL 2005, Page 21

From Samuel Brittan

Sir: It is a sound convention that authors do not take issue with reviewers. But part of the same convention is that reviewers refrain from inaccurate or misleading accounts of what the author has written. Tim Congdon, in his review of my book Against the Flow (Books, 12 March), claims, on the basis of my suggestion that industrial nations should reduce their dependence on Middle Eastern oil, that I recommended that the Middle East ‘should be cut out of the international trading system’. Congdon’s own unsureness about his inference is betrayed by his telltale words ‘in essence’ in front of it. May I suggest that anyone interested should look at the section in question (pp 20–23) and judge for himself?

Samuel Brittan

London SE1