Madam, - Tony Allwright (March 10th) is simply wrong in his assertion that social democracy is some sort of gradual transition to real socialism.
It is a far more substantive philosophy than that.
All my life I have been proud to describe myself as a social democrat.
I am as opposed to the tyranny and intolerance so often applied by some so-called socialists as I am to the misery and inherent antagonism towards real democracy so often the result of unbridled capitalism.
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Social democracy, in theory and practice, offers a value-filled, people-centred, pragmatic approach to the problems and opportunities facing our society. No second-rate philosophy there. - Yours, etc,
Cllr DERMOT LACEY, Beech Hill Drive, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.