SEVERAL recent letters from Jim Tague contained the most ridiculous anti-socialist assertions and convinced me that “Jim Tague” was an alias for a left-winger purporting to be a right-winger.

By making outrageous statements, e.g., that Adolf Hitler’s Nazis were pursuing socialist policies, he gave Messrs Gilmore, O’Connor et al the chance to refute him with reasoned argument based on historical facts.

But, having read last week in The Guardian that two senior Tories are involved with an extreme right-wing organisation whose ideas include mass deportations to Africa, I’m beginning to think that Jim Tague’s ideas are compatible with the modern Tory party.

The Swinton Circle was set up in the 1960s by supporters of Enoch Powell. Recent on-line newsletters have included the suggestion that the New Zealand earthquake was a warning against gay-marriage and the argument that “without a husband a woman is but a sexual object to be shared around”.

What nice company for ex-Cabinet members Liam Fox and Owen Paterson to keep.

Mr Tague’s socialist-bashing seems quaint by contrast.

Phil Hunt, Barningham.