JULIAN Cole expresses his confusion over the burqa and thinks liberal- minded people should accept it as not a problem (The Press, July 29).

He also thinks it is connected to religion. Wrong, the Muslim Council will tell you it is not.

Back in the early Seventies, I was a member of the Liberal political party as it was known then. Steve Galloway still had hair and Sue Galloway looked pretty much the same as she does now.

In those days, party activists went out canvassing. Individuals in certain parts of Acomb always said they had voted Labour all their life and always would. I concluded that Labour voters followed a politics of envy, so I grew more right wing.

Whether that qualified me as liberal thinking, I do not know.

I have been to countries where native women are covered head to foot in black robes. They walk two to three paces behind their man, who is either in western clothing or white robes to reflect the sun.

Islamic women are downtrodden by agreeing to wear such clothing, and after all women have gone through in Britain to achieve equality, there is no place for such subservience to men here.

Bob Waite, Holgate, York.