Breaking the surface
Sir: I trust you will allow a hitherto anonymous, polytechnocratic mole to poke, his subversive snout above the surface 01 the Fleet Street lawn where the peacocks parade their political plumage. Paul Johnson (`Quis custodiet?', 6 March) says an anonymous 'SDP man' complained to him that the radical Left was being over- represented in the Guardian's Letters col- umn, and he kindly suggests that this 'ma)/ simply be because the Left is more active in organising letter-writing campaigns'.
If over the past six months or so the so- called broad Left has been afforded more space than the SDP, that should not be so surprising. When one party is convulsed in flames and another is merging peacock-like, which would one expect to be more prone to raking over the ashes? And in this con- text, the idea of organised letter-writing campaigns is simplistic; for instance, if one takes the period since Labour declared 10 phoney peace at Bishop's Stortford, SDr Liberal issues have received the giant s share of our column-centimetres.
What is more devious about Mr Johnson's lively article is the implication that somehow, being 'strategically placed I am burrowing away beneath the Guar- dian's lawn. While Paul Johnson is well- versed in the geology of shifting political sands, I owe political allegiance to no partY — and never have — but only to the Guar- dian's executive editors.
Christopher MacLean Letters Editor, Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1
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