I AM tickled, as Ken Dodd would say, by the Trimdon Labour Club members who expressed BNP-type views, claiming they would not consider voting BNP in your article headed "There'll be civil war" (Echo, Mar 19).

This is as bizarre as the Daily Mail which, day after day, publishes articles on immigration which are indistinguishable from articles in BNP publications, while castigating the BNP. So what is going on?

My theory is that most of us like working ourselves up into a frenzy of righteous indignation about once a day. This requires someone, or some organisation relative to which we can claim moral superiority. In the Middle Ages, the latter role was played by witches.

Politics and religion are areas suitable for the display of moral fervour, but there are problems here.

As to politics, the three main parties are now identical. As to religion, this has fallen out of fashion.

Disaster. A whipping boy or a scapegoat of some sort must be found. Ah: the BNP.

Ralph Musgrave, Durham.