ACCORDING to P Watson, Ben Drake has "no right to try to influence the electorate" (Letters, March 2). I would have thought that was exactly the point of election campaigns in a democracy.

If P Watson's problem is with Ben Drake's "diatribe" being "vitriolic", perhaps she or he should take a look at some BNP leaflets, with their attempt to scapegoat refugees for every ill that assails Britain today.

Ben Drake is indeed a trade union activist, and a very good one; he is an active campaigner against low pay and privatisation.

Campaigning against the likes of the BNP is very much in union members' interests, fascist parties being intensely hostile to independent, campaigning unions.

Frank Ormston

Waverley Street, York

...DR (of what?) Phill Edward's claim that the BNP is an anti-fascist party is both startling and untrue, (February 26). My dictionary includes "system of extreme right-wing or authoritarian views" in its definition of fascism which would seem to be a fair summery of the BNP's most public utterances.

If the (fascist) cap fits, Dr Edwards...

Tony Eves,

Margaret Phillipson Court,

Aldwark, York.

Updated: 12:55 Thursday, March 04, 2004