Sir, – I first met Clare Daly at the 1988 Labour Youth conference when we were both supporters of Militant. She is one of the most courageous and principled people I have ever known. On crucial occasions Clare was prepared to ask awkward questions of the party commissars. She was often the ordinary member’s friend against a Militant/Socialist Party leadership regime which operated, and clearly does still operate, in an arbitrary, undemocratic way.
The Socialist Party’s rather hysterical statement attacking Clare is, in part, payback for that. – Yours, etc,