Madam, - Your edition of September 16th reports the Taoiseach as saying it was "increasingly obvious" to him that the current economic difficulties and the political dilemma posed by the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty were linked. But you do not report him as saying what that link is and how it has caused economic downturn.
Until he does so - and that might prove rather difficult, not least because countries that have ratified Lisbon are also in trouble - one may suspect Mr Cowen of resorting to the same tactics that cost a percentage of votes to the Yes side of the argument.
Instead of making the case for the Lisbon Treaty, he is engaging in a form of political blackmail that does nothing but patronise and browbeat people, and which plays on fears which he bears some responsibility for bringing about.
He would be far better arguing the case for Lisbon in a way that respects the intelligence of the electorate.
It is increasingly obvious that the Taoiseach has learned nothing from past experience and intends continuing to use methods that have so far proved disastrous from his own perspective. - Yours, etc,
EOIN DILLON, Ceannt Fort, Mount Brown, Dublin 8.