I’m sorry my letter annoyed Mr Stephen O’Byrne so much (‘Letter was not patronising’, Your Views, August 7).

Mr O’Byrne would surely have seen that to dismiss everyone who takes a different view of recent British history from one’s own as “aging Thatcherites” is (perhaps) just a trifle patronising. And if “aging” aggravates the crime of being a Thatcherite then the anti-Thatcherites, like Peter Pan, must have discovered the secret of perpetual youth. Mr O’Byrne’s diatribe rather suggests that they have, since he clings to all the leftist clichés that were current in the 1980s and 1990s and seems totally unable to subject them to the critical detachment, which maturity and experience are supposed to bring.

With his quixotic mission to “afflict the comfortable” I have no quarrel. But when he boasts of his readiness to “defend his comments in the street”, one can only ask with genuine perplexity: Who from?

Martin R Maloney

Hamilton Way, West Finchley