JOHN GILMORE holds left wing views and thinks that by adding that he’s a history teacher, readers will think he’s presenting a balanced view (HAS, Dec 16).

But in attempting to airbrush the extent of Benito Mussolini’s undeniable revolutionary socialists roots, he is effectively asking the class to skip the first 50 pages of a 100 page history lesson on Mussolini’s life and times.

Mussolini served a five-month jail sentence after his involvement in a 1911 socialist riot against what he said was Italy’s Imperialist War in Libya. He edited and massively increased the circulation of the Socialist Party Newspaper Avanti. In 1914, prominent Italian socialists were divided in their support for the First World War. Mussolini was initially against, then swayed by the possibility of furthering his personal ambition, essentially changing from being an orthodox socialist into a nationalistic socialist, believing it to be the only way to save Italy – obviously with him as leader.

He then created a party called the Fascists and acted as any other in a list of madmen have done: he purged those opponents who could stop his rise to the top.

Feel free to be as incandescent with rage as you like, but Mussolini was rooted in socialism and there’s nothing conservative about state control of the people, either Fascist or National Socialist. You’ll be suggesting the BNP are right-wing next!

Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland