3 MARCH 2001, Page 34

Sked addled

From Mr Christopher Booker Sir: For all his huffing and puffing, I note that Alan Sked (Letters, 24 February) cannot actually answer any of the specific corrections I made (Letters 17 February) to his dotty attack on the UK Independence party (Sceptics who betray the country', 10 February). To resent being described as having been chucked out of his party's leadership just because he got his resignation in first is rather like claiming that Ted Heath voluntarily resigned as leader of the Tories. And when Mr Sked repeats his castigation of UKIP MEPs for not attending various committees in the European Parliament, I can only say that the reverence in which he appears to hold those fatuous bodies is not shared by many of us who have observed their proceedings at first hand.

Christopher Booker

Litton, Bath