Dear Sir/Madam,

Now, at last, we all know what kind of a person Jeffery Archer really is: one absolutely unsuitable for public office (The end: Archer goes to jail, 20 July 2001).

Did he mislead the Tory leadership, which promoted him to party chairman, made a lord of him and finally offered him to Londoners as their candidate for Mayor? If so, what an abysmal judge of character they all must be. Or did they have an idea of what he was really like (I hear that they had been warned often enough), but not care?

Either way, it reveals the Tory leadership's complete unworthiness and lack of competence to govern. And as an opposition party they are without any credibility. That they have had the nerve to criticise anybody other than themselves is outrageous. With shameful contempt for the electorate's memory and intelligence they hammered Labour for not being able to undo in 4 short years the havoc that 18 years of Tory mismanagement had caused in education, health, the railways etc.

Thank goodness they were given such a whopping in the last election. It shows that the British electorate is not quite as forgetful and stupid as many Tory politicians - and some editors - liked to think, and a far better judge of character and competence as well!

Times leader: Archer's end A cautionary tale of our time

Times comment: The true tragedy of the Archer affair is the long list of his accomplices