The Financial Times (November 21) reported Mr Wilshire, the Tory MP - whose Spelthorne constituency borders Heathrow -as saying, in relation to Terminal 5: "Hopefully the obsessed knockers of Heathrow will now accept democracy and shut up.

"These self-appointed and self-opinionated few are hell-bent on putting thousands of my constituents out of work and must not be allowed to succeed."

I am sure, whatever their views of the decision on the Terminal 5 inquiry, your readers will recognise there are many rational and real worries about the expansion of Heathrow airport.

Many of those who voice such concerns have devoted considerable amounts of their free time to ensure that, in accordance with our democracy, those concerns are rationally articulated and are fully taken into account.

I hope Mr Wilshire's comments are not symptomatic, in however superficial a way, of a narrow-minded and introspective attitude within the Tory Party.

However, if his remarks are, then Mr Wilshire's outburst may yet stand as testimony, not to Heathrow's terminal increase, but to his own party's terminal decline.

G W JAMES, Granard Avenue, Putney

November 30, 2001 13:30