Letters: In Brief

Sir: Ken Binmore (letter, 7 September) concludes that competition is good for consumers. I remember a story about two ice cream vendors on a mile-long beach. They agreed to station themselves a quarter of a mile at each side of the centre, each being responsible for half the beach. However temptation led each to encroach on to the other's pitch until they finally pitched themselves at the half-way mark. Of course, neither gained any more business and the public had to walk, on the average, twice as far.

PETER ROBERTS

Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex

Sir: Are advocates of adoption not confining itself to same-race adoptions("Racial dogma has no role in the adoption of children", 4 September) happy with the idea of white babies being brought up in black families?

T THOMAS

Leeds

Sir: Terence Blacker ("Why we English hate ourselves", 8 September) quotes his local greengrocer: "Apples? English apples?" Two missed opportunities for an apostrophe in a single sentence!

TIM McGRATH

Cambridge