Sir: As the Labour Party heatedly debates the future of grant-maintained (GM) schools, it is worth asking what the fuss is all about. To argue for abolishing GM schools because they are more generously funded seems perverse. Easier, surely, to equali...

Sir: What a confused argument Charles Fyffe (Letters, 4 October) makes against the metric system! He claims that metric is at once too simplistic and too difficult to use, and attempts to induce from the fact that 1,000 cc (1 litre) of pure water wei...

On this last point Mr Hattersley is surely right. Of course Mr Blunkett and Mr Blair deserve credit for for their stress on improving the quality of teachers, for accepting the need to measure performance and for sending out clear signals about the i...

Sir: If new Labour is based on the democratic principles of community and social justice and not just on Marxist dogma, there is no reason why it should not preserve and develop the Government's Assisted Places Scheme, which enables bright youngsters...

Sir: Peter Popham ("Brutalist, original, but a slum", 2 October) raises the contentious issue of listing buildings less than 30 years after they were constructed. There is as yet no unanimity of view about modern architecture and townscape. The Royal...

We cannot yet know, but John Rentoul makes a brave attempt to answer through a biography in a hurry. His is, I think, a highly competent try, made impressive more by wit and insight rather than by what Ben Pimlott suggests on the dust cover was "thor...

So I feel terribly let down when it puts its collective foot in it, as I believe it has done in its recent criticism of various environmental pressure groups and charities. The ASA accuses them of "misinforming people by exaggerating or stretching th...

Sir: Further French testing raises a crucial question. How in the future can we prevent a single national leader posing a threat to global security against global democratic will? Chirac's actions stem from political self-interest, not concern for gl...

Sir, For over a year now several observers, including myself (Letters, 13 May 1994), have been lobbying for a mini-Marshall Plan for Bosnia, to be offered to both sides in the conflict before a ceasefire as a means of obtaining peace. The donor power...

Sir: It is hoped that no one is surprised or encouraged by anything that General Sani Abacha had to say in his Nigerian Independence Day anniversary speech. Nigeria is a complex country, of this there is no doubt. It took a transition plan of eight y...

Last of the Bobs The annual Bobfest - a convention in Avon, Colorado, for relatives and friends of men named Bob - is no more. Tom Britz, organiser of the event, told the town council he is tired of running it, and the council voted against taking it...

Naturally enough, the Trust's centenary has produced its fair crop of criticisms, many of which I instinctively share. Or, rather I did, until I listened to the Trust more attentively. Never mind, then, that it offers a nostalgic nation a bolt-hole f...

Simpson himself was, of course, a star already - an American football hero and movie actor. And that was the point. Here was a man whose place in the American consciousness was so well defined that his trial had to be a show trial. Here was a hero wh...

Sir: Tim McGirk rightly attributes ("India turns its back on Western ways", 29 September) the slowing down of India's economic reforms to the climate of xenophobia generated by nationalist politicians. However, it is pointless to blame the opposition...

Sir: In your article "On the banks of the Thames, a 40-foot bust of Churchill" (20 September), it is stated that the Churchill Society has supported the erection of a monumental-sized sculpture of a bust of Sir Winston Churchill on the South Bank of ...

Many will shake their heads at the verdict, believing that justice has signally failed to be done. They may wonder what - short of video evidence - it would have taken to convict Simpson of the killings. Such feelings must be tempered by two consider...

Sir: Your article on the dilemmas facing those who are to decide on the fate of the tower blocks of the Sixties asks for readers' comments ("Brutalist, original, but a slum," 2 October). By all means preserve the Brutalist monuments. But, at the same...

To the priesthood the Irish people gave a very special trust and loyalty. These were men sprung from a peasant order - and, by virtue of their celibacy, immune from the dynastic temptations of placing their sons in positions of power and marrying the...

Sir: The caption to David Ekserdijian's article "The art of lying" (23 September) refers to Bruno Hat as a "non-existent artist". Although Hat was the invention of Brian Howard, Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton, the highly accomplished rope paintings at...

Sir: Whether we want it or not, we are going to be saddled with the metric system. However, Tom Wilkie ("Drop your feet and use your fingers," 30 September), in trying to persuade us that it is a Good Thing, perhaps unwittingly blows the gaff when he...