6 JUNE 1987, Page 34

LETTERS

Hare brained

Sir: David Hare (Why I shall vote Labour', 23 May) has quite a number of reasons for voting for a collectivist party. Most are pretty silly, but I would like to make one point.

Is self-interest (misdescribed as 'greed') incompatible with the 'national interest'? It is indeed a point of liberal economics that no such conflicts need exist. But Mr Hare's hysterical denunciation of the pursuit of self interest must have swayed the votes of many. People, as Paul Johnson observed some time ago, do not like being 'got at'. That aspect of bullying in collectivist rhe- toric I find both offensive and revealing. Tom Burroughes

32 Saxon Road, Hove, Sussex