Dear Sir/Madam,

When Kenneth Clarke announces his intention to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party this week, hopefully he will also say a few words about the kind of business he was conducting last week in Vietnam on behalf of the Tobacco company he works for (Clarke 'disgusted' by sniping in Tory leadership campaign, 23 June 2001).

No wonder the successive Conservative governments he was a member of did all they could to protect the tobacco industry’s interests – at terrible cost to the health and lives of British citizens. Although, taking a cynical view, I suppose on average more Labour than Conservative voters will eventually die as a result.

Those responsible for the tobacco industry - and Mr Clark must surely rank among them - are morally, if not legally, every bit as criminal and ruthless as those who deal in hard drugs. For despite all the evidence of the terrible harm it does (about 3 million deaths every year!), they continue to spend billions of dollars promoting their addictive and deadly products.

Or is this kind of “business first” simply good Tory policy?

I wonder if Mr Clarks’s enthusiasm for Europe is not driven by the knowledge that within the single currency, a future Conservative government would be in a better position to protect the interests of the tobacco industry.

Or am I being too cynical?