Dear Sir

Stephen Pollard asserts that the 'non-reaction' to Ian McCartney's description of Oliver Letwin as Fagin 'speaks volumes about how the Left views anti-Semitism' ('Say what you like about Jews', The Sunday Telegraph, 7 March).

Ian McCartney's point may have been clumsily expressed and may therefore also have caused offence, but his words do not give the CRE the locus to take any action against him.

We frequently speak out against anti-Semitism, which is just as evil and pernicious as any other form of racism. When synagogues and Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated we have condemned the actions of the perpetrators and called on the police to carry out thorough investigations.

I was also one of the very few people who broke what Stephen Pollard described as the 'deafening silence of criticism' when Tam Dalyell MP claimed that 'a cabal of Jewish advisers' was 'unduly influencing' the Prime Minister. I have condemned his remarks live on national television, but sadly no other media outlet, the Sunday Telegraph included, saw fit to quote my words.

• 'Say what you like about Jews' – Stephen Pollard's article in The Sunday Telegraph, 7 Mar 04 (external link)