WARM congratulations to Burnley Labour Party for rejecting the hare-brained 'sexist short-list' (LET, January 21).

At a time when all that really matters is that we secure MPs who will not poodle supinely behind a leadership which lacks democratic authority on the vital issues such as war and peace, the sex-balance of Parliament, desirable though it is, is as trivial as that between blue-eyed and brown-eyed MPs.

To raise it now is like fiddling while Rome burned, or shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic!

FRANK McMANUS, Longfield Road, Todmorden.