RESPONDING to Mr Mitchell s letter, I acknowledge that now and then I like to indulge in serious meditation, as we all should, with me a natural tendency in pursuit of history and how it relates to current events. Studying history gives the benefit of log

RESPONDING to Mr Mitchell's letter, I acknowledge that now and then I like to indulge in serious meditation, as we all should, with me a natural tendency in pursuit of history and how it relates to current events.

Studying history gives the benefit of logical explanation. It defines not only the past but also the present and will even give glimpses into the future. It is three-dimensional, hence history's importance educationally.

I also follow prophetic forecasts that are, for most part, astonishingly accurate and warrant serious observation. It is serious stuff and when so many prefer bury their heads in the sand I keep mine above ground, assimilate the facts and still remain a "cheery chap".

I do not immerse myself in politics of any kind as I do not trust party dogma but care to independently observe.

I acknowledge that unions do much for the working class, do good work in health and safety standards and improve working conditions. However, for several decades they reacted over-zealously in aggressively demanding substantial and unsustainable pay increases.

Your correspondent alludes to Germany's neo-Nazi BNP and implies that political correctness helps to keep potential insurgency under control.

Political correctness of a sort existed in Germany in pre-war times and under Hitler resulted in imprisonment or extermination of anyone daring to criticise the party.

Political correctness ushered a new barbaric civilisation into the world.

We who live in a democratic society are fortunate, or were fortunate, to have the ultimate freedom to criticise anyone and anything without fear of recrimination.

Whatever people may think, political correctness flies in the face of free expression and free speech legally enshrined in the Magna Charta.

I can tolerate criticism and insult because anyone who chooses to verbalise reprehensibly or otherwise has that basic right. Erosion of freedom to speak one's mind, as happened in Germany and Russia, and is happening in China and other totalitarian regimes, begins with dubious variations of political correctness.

I have no wish to proffer an almanac, Mr Mitchell. Suffice to add: Keep an eye on the Middle East. Two thousand years ago in that very same place a warp was set in the dramatic long-term plan to bring an end to the world's troubles.

There, in that theatre of catastrophic instability at an appropriate time, the troubles will end and the world will marvel at the consequences.

TREVOR BEVIS

St Peter's Road

March