Letters: In Brief

Sir: Fred Naylor (letter, 10 June) claims that he can find no evidence that sex education does not encourage sexual activity. He need look no further than the paper by S Guttmacher and colleagues in the American Journal of Public Heath, volume 87, September 1997, pp 1425-33. This carefully controlled study found that sex education, combined with easy access to condoms in New York high schools, increased condom use but had no effect on levels of sexual activity.

Since there are many similar published studies, he evidently did not look very far.

DONALD REID

Chief Executive

Association for Public Health

London SW1

Sir: Lord Bingham is right to warn the Lord Chancellor not to abandon legal aid in favour of no-win, no-fee deals (Podium, 15 June). The cost of legal aid would be very substantially reduced if legal representation in court were to be restricted to junior council or a solicitor on both sides in any case where either party were deemed entitled to legal aid.

MICHAEL RUBENSTEIN

Benington, Hertfordshire.

Sir: Pandora (2 June) quotes my voting record in the last session of Parliament (1996-97) when I was mostly out of the country. I am an independent crossbench peer and, as such, I choose to vote only on issues where I have relevant knowledge.

Lord SEMPILL

House of Lords

London SW1

Sir: What on earth are the Lib Dems doing cosying up to Labour like this? This is their chance of the century. The Tories are out for the count. The Lib Dems should be taking over as the only effective opposition to Labour. Strange death of Liberal England indeed!

ROBERT DAVIES

London SE3