I AM more extreme than Great Aycliffe Town Councillor Kathy Beetham!

I have questioned Sedgefield Constituency Labour Party over her selection as a candidate as I considered that her post-referendum Facebook rant, to the effect that leave voters should be gassed made her unsuitable.

Her bizarre response (HAS, Jul 20) appears to suggest that I am an extremist but she is proud to be more extreme than me in her support for the down-trodden in society. She is wrong!

As a free thinker, I have always been at one extreme or the other on most political questions and not bound by the ideology of the left or the right.

Where we differ is in the solution to the problems we both are passionate about. Name calling and trying to get your opponents no-platformed is not the answer. Gassing your opponents is a bit dramatic, even for me! Less political correctness and more democracy is the answer.

My MP, Phil Wilson, has ignored the views of 60 per cent of his electorate about Brexit, yet his local constituency party has not mentioned de-selection!

Cllr Beetham writes that she is extreme in her views that “all of our citizens, no matter what their gender, race, religion and sexuality is, are valued and respected”. This is not extreme; this is mainstream Equality Act.

However, I am more extreme! I believe in the Right to Life. I think it an abomination and a stain on our Parliamentary system that since the Abortion Act 1967 there have been about 8.7 million abortions in the UK. I believe that the right to life trumps all other rights and I accuse Cllr Beetham of being selective in the causes she supports.

Alastair PG Welsh,

Aycliffe Village.