Letters In Brief

Sir: Andrew Grice's analysis ("Hague urged to hit poll target", 8 March) of the coming battle in the May local elections seems to suggest a mainly two-way fight between the Tories and Labour. Does he omit the fact that the Liberal Democrats control more local councils than the Tories in order to divert the Tories from their main threat, undermine the Liberal Democrats, or leave out complexities for the benefit of a dumbed-down readership?

T J STONE

Whittlesford,

Cambridgeshire

Sir: Europe is moving towards greater integration and, in general, I welcome that. My motivation is not cheaper food or standardised working hours - it is the hope that we never see another European war. Our process of integration must be similar to the experience of the separate states of America. It is interesting to speculate what would have happened if a state had chosen not to adopt the dollar. Now you can use the US dollar in most countries of the world. How well do you think you'd get on with, say, Ohio dollars?

NORMAN PATERSON

Anstruther, Fife

Sir: Rapid translation, printing and distribution has already rushed Monica's Story to our distant corner of France, where the local supermarket has set a pile of it, with what I think in England is called Gallic flair, right at the heart of a massive display of the Guide Michelin 1999, also just out. As you might expect of France, the Guide is fast disappearing, Monica not.

JOHN LIVINGSTONE

Biarritz