Sir, - Andy Pollak says I have been driven "into the isolation of extremism" (An Irishman's Diary, August 16th). I wonder was this isolation caused by my refusal to have anything to do with the Opsahl Commission in spite of repeated requests from Mr Pollak for me to do so - knowing as I did that Mr Opsahl admitted in Norway that a main purpose of the commission was to put pressure on the SDLP. If I wished to put pressure on the SDLP I would do it in my own way, and if I did not wish it I was unwilling to be put in a position where I seemed to do so.
And was my extremism exemplified by our request to Mr Pollock to come to Belfast to discuss articles written by him and his colleagues which residents of West Belfast considered ill researched and offensive? Perhaps somebody's definitions of extremism and isolation are wrong. Thank God Mr Pollak has himself avoided the pitfalls of extremism and isolation. But it was a near thing: the first time I encountered him was in a BBC studio in Belfast where he was commenting on the small number of families who "owned" a large proportion of the land comprising Northern Ireland. I rejoiced that here was a radical voice in the barren waste of conservative journalism. I was wrong, of course. - Yours, etc.,
Desmond Wilson, Springhill Close, Belfast 12.