I CANNOT allow B Emmerson's assertion to go unchallenged - that David Blunkett's mistake in this sorry saga was in being found out (Letters, December 19).

His error was in attributing his own genuine feelings of love and loyalty equally to his lover, when these qualities were clearly alien to her. He loved not wisely but only too well, as so many other good and powerful men have done through the centuries when in the throes of love for women not worthy of such devotion.

Any man is only as good as the woman he is with and Blunkett stood no chance. Well versed in the dark arts of deception and adultery, his lover used him in the most heartless way - requesting a favour which he could only grant by compromising his position and integrity, but which he did gladly, being putty in her hands.

It is doubly ironic that this one small favour was the final nail in the coffin of his meteoric career and was deliberately and personally driven home by those same faithless hands.

Heather Causnett,

Escrick Park Gardens,

Escrick, York.

Updated: 11:17 Tuesday, December 21, 2004