Sir - K.Hemming's letter of 21.3.2014 now easily qualifies him as a member of that small but depressing group of writers for whom the following of an argument or a narrative, and the sticking to a point, seem (to borrow a most appropriate phrase used recently on this page by my very good friend Peter Nielsen) to be beyond their intellectual compass.

I had dared merely to point out, helpfully, that the bullying and ludicrously over-the-top tone of his earlier letter about an EU referendum was doing the promotion of his anti-EU stance no good at all - and he's now still at it, in his hole and digging furiously!

I did not, in fact, mention the Labour Party (which Mr. Hemming now focuses on but which, happily, is nothing to do with me); and the last time that I smoked a pipe was on 25th. July 1991!

Some folks need to calm down a little.

David Barlow

Worcester