I HAD to check the date to make sure it wasn't April Fools Day when I read Hugh Pender's response (HAS, Apr 2) to my previous letter. He starts by describing the nuclear bombing of Japan in 1945 as an "atrocity", conveniently forgetting the millions of lives saved as a result.

He then moves on to misquote me.

I didn't say that Israel hasn't got a nuclear arsenal, I merely challenged his previous - unsupported - estimation of its size.

Thereafter, he sidesteps my point about the need for nuclear energy in Iran - they haven't got one - and launches into his usual and all too predictable message of hatred aimed at our American allies.

The idea then mooted that any country should be allowed to own a stock of nuclear bombs simply beggars belief. The Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory, was agreed to avoid this nightmare scenario. Presumably he thinks it should now be scrapped.

Sorry to disillusion you, Mr Pender, but my currency is substantiated fact. Yours is personal opinion (the word you seem to prefer is prejudice) based on a warped version of current affairs and a twisted perspective of history.

David Lacey, Durham.