Simons say

Simons say

I'm not sure which of the letters from the two Simons in Saturday's paper is more offensive: the simple elitism of Mr Osborne, who mocks the frugality of people queuing to save a small amount of money in "A long wait for HK$2" (February 10), or Mr Patkin's familiar attacks on environmentalists in favour of his "capitalism is God" attitude ("Greenie gibberish").

I suppose the former could be accepted as making a wry observation, although Mr Osborne obviously has no appreciation of the underclass in this town, who labour long and hard for a pittance.

Mr Patkin, however, has often stated his belief that nothing should stand in the way of the pursuit of personal financial wealth. Unfortunately, as usual, he attacks without any evidence to support his views. This may be because he previously embarrassed himself trying to back up his arguments against global warming by quoting a US senator who has accepted massive funding from the oil and gas industry ("Shrill alarmism", October 2).

I've taken a little time to look into Mr Patkin's Capitalist Solutions think-tank. In both the term "think-tank" and his claim to support "rational" self-interest, I believe he is falling short of his goals.

JOHN BRUCE, Pok Fu Lam

Well said sir!

I was going to reply to Patkin's letter myself, but couldn't be bothered in the end. Plus, every attempt started with: "That dribbling idiot...", so I decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

It's important that shills and ideologues like Patkin have the wind taken out of their sails on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the wind in Mr. Patkin's sails seems to stem largely from his own right-wing bloviating. He may, ironically, be a perpetual motion wind powered machine, the ultimate goal for those of us who wish to preserve the world with our current climate.