Sir, Your leading article (“Veil of ignorance” , Jan 16) attacking UKIP’s proposed public ban of the burka may have pleased the Islington and Notting Hill sets, but does a huge disservice to the great majority of the British people who want an honest and balanced debate on this sensitive issue.
Moderate Muslims regard the burka as a sign of growing radicalisation, saying that we should demand to see people’s faces in public, so that we do not feel scared or frightened. Turkey has banned it already.
The sad reality is that Britain now has an anti-British Establishment who hate their own country and seek to denigrate it at every opportunity. This elite — this Lib-Lab consensus — is now dangerously out of touch on issues from the EU through defence spending to MP expenses and immigration.
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UKIP deplores racism but will not shrink from facing serious and divisive issues head on. Someone has to.
David Campbell Bannerman, MEP Deputy Leader, UKIP
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Sir, During the greatest financial crisis facing this country since the 1930s, how typical it is of UKIP’s present pathetic leadership that its flagship policy for the forthcoming general election should be to attack the less than 1 per cent of our female population who wear the burka. This is desperate and inane.
If the party is really so obsessed with race, immigration and Islam, it should simply merge with the BNP, which it increasingly resembles. Why have a competition in intolerance? Why not present a united front? After all the political expediency that drives both these anti-EU parties to take up seats in the European Parliament surely dictates such a measure. But let us dismiss any thought that either of them represents “British values”.
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I founded UKIP as a tolerant, liberal and democratic party. By 1997 I could already see the far-right writing on the wall and quit as party leader and member. It is a decision that I have never regretted, now least of all. I hope that all decent people will condemn the party as you did in your splendid leading article.
Dr Alan Sked
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London N1
Sir, This is further evidence that UKIP has effectively become the rich man’s BNP. Both parties are also wooing far-right voters by using idiot logic to dismiss the science of climate change, indicating a preference for pretend solutions over real ones. The new far Right
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of British politics now sees both ignorance and intolerance as virtues, and has UKIP firmly aboard.
They have achieved what David Cameron never could: suddenly the Tories look cuddly by comparison.
Dr Richard Milne
Edinburgh
Sir, Covering of the face sends a strong message that communication is to be blocked and is therefore instinctively read as threatening. No amount of explanation will change this very basic fact. Antipathy to the wearing of the burka has nothing to do with prejudice, freedom to worship or immigration. The Koran contains no religious requirement that women cover their faces.
Sadly, many women are forced to wear the burka and their ability to communicate effectively and openly is deliberately denied. The relatively few who are able to choose to wear it are perhaps unaware of the encouragement they give to those who impose it, or they don’t care.
Caroline Clayden
Bath