Sir, – Middle-class voters tempted to vote for Sinn Féin because of their promise to abolish the property tax might be surprised by Aidan Beatty’s view that they should be worried about a threat to private property (“Why the middle classes are afraid of Sinn Féin”, Opinion & Analysis, February 13th).
Sinn Féin is probably the only socialist party in the world to oppose property taxes and its policies pose no more of a threat to private property than did Labour policies when that party was attracting lots of middle-class support.
Resistance to Sinn Féin is more likely grounded in its historical support for political violence and its continued defence of that violence.
On another note, it is surprising to read a historian state that Edmund Burke was writing “a century and and a half after Locke”. Dates can sometimes be inconsequential details but they can also provide historical context and are usually the easiest historical facts to get right. – Yours, etc,
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ROBERT CARROLL,
Dublin 6W.