IN his off-hand quasi-political way, Peter Doherty (Fifth Column) recently dismissed one of the architects of modern democratic Britain. He should be condemned, if only for using Roy Jenkins' name in the same sentence as "terrorism"!

A miner's son, Jenkins showed great intellectual concern for the progress of liberal society in the UK and Europe.

Peter Doherty's assumption regarding straw polls shows the political mediocrity that we as a nation have come to expect and which he fails dismally to recognise when commenting on great achievements.

J. HOLDEN,

St Paul's Street,

Ramsbottom.