Sir: I have the greatest respect for Nicky Piper and agree with most of what he says (Another View: "Freedom to fight", 28 February). In addressing the horror of the acute, catastrophic intra-cranial haemorrhage in boxing bouts, he states, correctly,...

Jim jumped; Nick Leeson plunged; 14-year-old Peter Kerry took a holiday with a stolen passport and credit card. Between those stories lies a whole century in which the drifters and the marginal types become more heroic until at last the whole idea of...

From the very beginning, this created problems. Can one control one's feelings? One can keep the Sabbath; one can refuse to kill others - but how can we control our feelings and inner urges, particularly when they are encouraged by the society in whi...

Man has overtones of ... well, of Man United, I suppose, but not a lot else really, except of Man, and I suppose the way the human species is evolving at the moment. That's not a thing that any of us wants to be reminded of. Still, as a name it has a...

Persistent parents with great determination have eventually achieved a reversal in the Scottish court of the original August 1990 finding of ritualistic abuse. Two years ago they persuaded the Court of Session to order an inquiry which lasted 12 mont...

Sir: Employers are certainly under pressure to raise their safety standards ("Accidents will happen, but not quite so often", 23 February). The costs of injury and ill-health are a powerful argument for them to do so. But workers are not just passive...

Sir: Much has been written on the subject of Stephen Fry's disappearance, and I have no desire to add my personal opinion to the pile. His fax to his theatrical agent says all we need to know ("I've been a silly old fool. Sorry", 25 February). I woul...

Sir: The time may be fast approaching when Britain will be required to uphold its commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to pursue disarmament negotiations ("Trident could be bargained away to save arms treaty", 28 February). Sta...

Sir: Your story "Doctors fear end of cradle-to-grave care" (24 February) gives the misleading impression that our guidance on continuing care takes away or reduces elderly people's right to free NHS care. The guidance does not change two fundamental ...

Sir: As a worker in the City of London for over 40 years, I find your reference to Barings' renowned prowess and skills in the Far East extremely worrying. The City's financial institutions happily promote the belief in the superiority of London as t...

Sir: The point at issue (Another View: "Witty film, nutty editorial", 22 February) is not whether films should be about, in Michael Winner's words, "nice people doing nice things". It is whether or not a film is enhanced by showing the nasty things i...

Sir: What a strange leading article ("Babies, BBC and the BCC", 24 February): praising the defeat of David by Goliath is rather different to the position previously adopted by the Independent. You are right that our complaint about the BBC's Panorama...

Sir: With regard to the recent debate triggered by the injury of the boxer, Gerald McClellan, to argue that one should not ban boxing because there will still be clandestine fights and British boxers fighting legally abroad is not sense. In an effort...

Sir: In the light of the collapse of Barings merchant bank, and in a regime of self-regulation of the professions - particularly in the financial world - it is incredible that the Bank of England's own regulation of the banking profession should be s...

This is probably an advantage on both sides, as when you are on holiday your parents are always grumbling about you and your behaviour, and they would probably rather be on their own. And the same goes for me. Actually, they are always grumbling abou...

Without a credible threat of force to back up the Western initiative, there is not the slightest chance that either Serbia's president Slobodan Milosevic, or the leaders of the Serb-controlled regions of Croatia and Bosnia, will accept the plan. Mr M...

Dr Mawhinney also repeated the elementary truth that you cannot reduce road travel or fuel consumption by subsidising public transport; the only effective method is to make such travel more expensive. In fact, the Government has in principle already ...

For Tony Blair, smiling vaguely back, is not only the Shadow Prime Minister, but also the Opaque Prime Minister, the Glimmering Prime Minister. His New Labour is truly a Shadow Government, a place of dark murmurings and inexplicable rustles, where po...