To The Age The "bizarre claims" of English controversialist David Icke are unlikely to gain much support in our land ("Ban on conspiracy theorist Icke", 21/2), and the last minute cancellation of his visa is hardly "a defining moment for who we are as a nation", as Dver Abramovitch has claimed. However, some of Icke's reported views, which clearly offend a powerful lobby, deserve open discussion. It is a pity that, as with the treatment of David Irving in the 1990s, our government has sacrificed the principle of free speech to placate that lobby.
Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic