6 AUGUST 1994, Page 25

Simply rude

Sir: Could the normally robust Richard Lit- tlejohn be turning into an over-sensitive luwie now he is now on local television? As the 'young man in the corduroy suit' `You'll be all right. Mummy judges people by the kind of shoes they wear.' referred to in his diary (9 July), I am in a better position than Richard to know that when I came to interview him last year I did not 'get it into my head' that he was a racist. In fact my piece in the Observer ended: 'I cannot believe somebody as bright as Littlejohn is a racist, but he is. reckless.'

It is equally absurd for him to suggest I was accusing him of racism when I men- tioned that he called Roger Hutchings, the Observer's photographer, a 'monkey' to his face. All he was being, as I thought I had made clear, was rude.

Andrew Billen

28 Cloudesley Road, London Nl