Letter: Over-wined, overcharged and over there

Sir: It is plainly nonsense to link the D-Day events, planned two years ago, with the short-term fortunes of the Tory party in the European elections. Of course the events are being politicised. President Clinton, on his 102,000-ton aircraft carrier, is not coming over out of the kindness of his heart. There is political kudos in it, for him and for the US: that is how democratic leaders behave.

To politicise is one thing, to commercialise quite another. As a D-Day veteran myself, when I first received the PR handout from the Southern Tourist Board about a year ago, I was horrified. Jazz bands, 1940s-style dances, Vera Lynn on the QE2 - these things have no part in what should be a solemn remembrance of the dead. I feel sorry for the US and Canadian veterans who have been lured to Normandy, where they will be over-wined, overaged and overcharged.

Yours faithfully,

SIDNEY VINES

Laverstock, Wiltshire