JOHN McCririck never really appealed to me the few times that I saw him on television. A bit of an oddball perhaps, certainly eccentric, but overnight I have changed my mind on this man.

He spoke more truth in church in a couple of paragraphs in his eulogy at the funeral of Robin Cook than any MP or civil rights/human rights activists has spoken over the last 12 months.

He is a brave man to have done this for his friend in those circumstances because to speak your mind for something that you feel strongly about in this country at the moment takes character and strength of purpose.

I would like to shake your hand John. We need a lot more people like you who have the courage to come out and say what is right and proper and not have these woolly-minded authoritarians and as you so rightly say deal in "petty vindictiveness and moral failure" preaching to us in this country when we know that what they are saying is wrong for us and our country!

CHRIS EGGLESTON, Quebec Road, Blackburn.