Madam, - Your edition of December 13th reports that Jean Marie Le Pen and some of his associates are planning to visit Ireland to campaign against the referendum on the revised EU constitutional treaty. While I am not particularly enthusiastic about the treaty myself, I would like to see the government ban Mr Le Pen and his associates from setting foot in Ireland, just as I assume they would ban an apologist for al-Qaeda.
Mr Le Pen espouses a political philosophy which is the negation of what most Irish people see the country as being about. He has openly sneered at the suffering of Jews during the Nazi occupation of his own country and played an active role of the repression of the Algerian people in their war of independence. Personally, I cannot think of anyone less qualified to advise the Irish people on how to vote on anything.
He should be denied entry into the country as an undesirable alien. - Yours, etc,
ED KELLY, Szeged, Hungary.
Madam, - Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald says: "Sinn Féin is calling on everyone on this island who will have a vote to come out and oppose this (Lisbon) Treaty" ( Opinion & Analysis, December 13th).
Never mind the Sinn Féin "this island" spin. As far as Irish people in the Six Counties are concerned, the Lisbon Treaty referendum is strictly confined to the 26-county State. Thanks not least to Sinn Féin, Northern Ireland in its entirety remains part of the United Kingdom. - Yours, etc,
MALACHY SCOT, Glenariffe, Co Antrim.