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So, Michael Ignatieff is to join the ranks of those on the Left excommunicated for the twin crimes of supporting the 2003 Iraq War for humanitarian reasons and for attempting to initiate a discussion about the balance of civil rights and security in the face of a threat that respects neither ("Ignatieff ducks debate with critics in torture row", September 9). Conor Gearty makes it clear that he does not think Ignatieff supports torture but accuses him of "slippery slope by proxy" - an accusation that makes any reasoned debate about civil liberties impossible.

An alternative view to Laurie Taylor's suggestion that Ignatieff is not replying to this accusation to maintain a clean bill of health for office could be that this "when did you stop beating your wife?"

witch-hunt was designed precisely to smear his reputation.

Anthony Cox Sutton Coldfield