I refer to Charles Buttigieg's letter (April 10). What, pray, is there to withdraw? Mr Buttigieg declared that he is "proud to promote Dr Muscat" and to "use arguments to convince others" in this regard. Is this not strategy? A team means also a "side", as in a group of people forming sides in a contest. Whose side is Mr Buttigieg on? He has already given us the answer to that. But Mr Buttigieg doesn't want to hear me say it and wants me to withdraw. I oblige him as I see no scope for further correspondence on this matter since his bias has now been exposed to the readers. I have reached my aim, as this was my obvious intention when I wrote the first letter commenting on Mr Buttigieg's article in The Times where he wrote about the qualities required of a leader.

One last point, Mr Buttigieg decides to pardon his own "slip in a previous letter" but is then heavy-handed on an obvious issue of proof-reading. It is evident that the latter has nothing to do with Mr Buttigieg's "slip" which he defends by citing the Bible, thus further indicating it as a repression of thoughts unconsciously released, as already discussed in my previous letter. You don't have to be a pedantic scholar to observe this; it only requires a modicum of common sense and a gender perspective. Both, to my mind, are substantive matters.