I noticed the following line from Stephen Mayne in yesterday’s Crikey: “The
Daily Telegraph still hasn’t run the following letter I sent in, which is
typical, even though Akerman gets a run in Crikey whenever he fires off a
letter.”

I’m The Daily Telegraph’s Letters Editor, but I’m on holiday at present.
My last day at work was 1 December, and the Piers piece you were
responding to appeared on 1 December. Presumably your response was sent
late on 1 December or on Friday, 2 December. Whatever, I didn’t see it.
As to why it has not been run in my absence, I have no idea. Speculation
is idle and doesn’t really get us anywhere.

Forgive me for being a little sensitive on this matter. Some clown at
the ABC (Greg Wilesmith) recently made a similar claim about me in
print i.e. he alleged that my not publishing a letter was “not
surprising”, or words to that effect. I took him to task on this,
because I had never seen such a letter. It subsequently emerged that
the alleged letter had been sent through the post (yep, the ABC still
uses snail mail in the 21st century). It never got to me, which was why
it didn’t get considered for publication.

As I said to Wilesmith, I have long since stopped taking myself
seriously, if indeed I ever did. But I still take my work seriously. I’m on holiday until
19 December.