Columnist in no position to criticise this state

YOUR columnist Steven King, in his strident critique of our political institutions (March 17), basks in the luxury of moral selectivity in his perpetual search for perceived political inadequacies in the Republic.

After claiming that “all constitutions require a refit once in a while, which the current Government has neglected since 1997”, he then launched an attack on the term of office of the president, stating that “seven years is a very long time to imprison someone in the Phoenix Park”.

May I suggest to Mr King that before he looks down his nose at the “perceived inadequacies” of Irish state institutions, he reflect on his own involvement with a political party and system that tolerated to excess every social, moral and political delinquency which in most civilised societies would be a cause of opprobrium.