12 NOVEMBER 1994, Page 34

Unavoidable absence

Sir: John Ware's unpleasant piece about Dame Shirley Porter was, I suppose, what one must expect these days from a BBC employee (`The brass neck of Dame Shirley Porter', 8 October). His remark, 'She said she had to go to Tel Aviv', implied that she was trying to avoid a meeting, but failed to tell us that it was for the funeral of her only grandson, killed in a dreadful motor smash. Ann Holloway

Eleonas, Kassiopi, Corfu, Greece