It is not only editorial misjudgement but also commercial suicide to brand an overwhelming tranche of readers as "plonkers" and "no-hopers".

Lessons in how to run a newspaper could be learned by a stint behind the chip-shop counter to which the Voice Of The Argus alluded.

This was a classic example of ascribing to others the faults recognised in oneself - a fatuous reaction to the palpable fact that the No campaign did not need The Argus to achieve its great success.

From which the question can be extrapolated: Does anybody need The Argus in its current form?

Gill Mitchell and R G Jenkins (Letters, October 23) parrot stock lines about "character assassination" and "fear" - the same phrases were in John Parry's article (The Argus, October 19) - but, if they really believed in the Yes cause, why didn't they get out there and pound the streets?

If you ask me, and if I might use The Argus style, the Yes lot were an idle bunch.

-Christopher Hawtree, Westbourne Gardens, Hove