I ENJOYED Steve Hiller’s short poem about Tim Siret and myself but it’s probable that we are unlikely to agree on much about political forms of government, which brings me onto his latest letter about Venezuela.

Other than continually criticising western governments, Tim rarely, if ever, actually tells us exactly what policies he would introduce, other than endorsing the politics of Mr Chavez.

He clearly states that no mainstream political party in this country represents his politics, in particular the previous and current Labour party, as well as the current elected Coalition.

Countries across the world support democratic principals that underpin wealth creation by free market, private enterprise economies. All of these prosperous, peaceful countries with high standards of living have been governed by political parties of both centre right and left with political principles as near as makes no difference to the UK’s mainstream political parties.

I can only conclude that Tim is as dismissive of these as he is of those here in the UK.

To conclude the debate, the Oxford Mail’s readers could make up their own minds by reading Venezuela’s country profile on the BBC News website.

They may find a somewhat different view on Tim’s “Ringing Endorsement” of socialism. I will sleep soundly in the sure knowledge that Tim’s vision of that type of government is unlikely to see the light of day in the UK, or anywhere else with an enlightened electorate.

I wonder what Tim’s next issue will be – the politics of Alex Salmond and Scottish independence would be interesting.

IAN CUMMINGS, Gibson Close, Abingdon