Letter: Jacqui Smith's easy ride

CATHERINE Deveney is very soft on Jacqui Smith in her interview (Spectrum, 27 February). How much better for the dignity of both Jacqui and her husband if "media folk" like Deveney could keep silent about a woman whom the public have rightly excoriated.

It seems the "flipping" claim, because it involved money (serious), unlike sex (fun), is something hacks take more seriously. Even here Deveney tries to excuse Smith with the clich of men being harder on her as she's a woman in high office. This is nonsense. Smith was a hugely unsuitable home secretary in a government of men and women who were seldom of a quality fit for the highest offices in our land.

BAJ Parsons, Town Yetholm