Sir - The WN reports that Douglas Carswell stunned the Conservatives by quitting as an MP for Clacton in Essex and announcing he will contest a by-election for Nigel Farage's party. There were reports over the weekend that up to eight more Tory MPs are considering defecting to UKIP amid dissatisfaction with David Cameron's position over Europe.

Robin Walker, MP for Worcester, thinks that Mr Carswell has "always been on the fringes of the party anyway, his intellectual position is that he thinks it right to rebel. It's a real shame from the party's perspective. I do think that Douglas is detached from reality over this whole issue".

Mid-Worcestershire MP Sir Peter Luff contributes by saying that: "In politics you have to compromise and balance. Douglas is dismissive of people who hold different perspectives ...he has an intellectual conviction which is tarnished by ignoring political reality."

It is self-evident and sadly predictable that Tories opting to be loyal to the party line have little compunction in disparaging others who have thought through their political alignment in derisory and ill-considered fashion. Reading what they have to say I am struck by the lack of intellectual rigour with which they seek to influence others on this subject. Describing someone who has rethought his political position as "detached from reality" (medically known as psychotic) (?!) , dismissive of others' positions when clearly they are equally dismissive, insulting Mr. Carswell's intellectual convictions as "tarnished by ignoring political reality". Whose definition of "reality" are we aspiring to?

Wendy Hands

Upton-Upon-Severn