SIR – But for a letter in the T&A (August 4), I had almost forgotten the saga of the former head teacher of Drummond Road School had happened 30 years ago.

But such events have been all too familiar over the last 50 years or so, starting with Conservative MP Enoch Powell condemned for his outspoken views on the subject whose name we hardly dare speak, even in today’s supposedly enlightened times.

A political Mr Honeyford paid the price of a broken career and ruined health. Next former Keighley MP Anne Cryer was shouted down by her own Labour party, then in government, when she tried in vain to promote legislation outlawing forced marriage.

Now it seems that it’s Lib-Dem MP David Ward’s turn for vilification just for speaking the truth about some aspects of the terrible situation in Palestine and Israel.

That these people should be continually persecuted for expressing their beliefs in an attempt to help others, is frightening as to me at least, it embodies all the worst oppression of “free speech” in Nazi Germany or Communist Eastern Europe.

D S Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds