Sir: Your poll finding against decriminalising cannabis proves that there are still enough people who put responsibility for others before their own self-interest ("Cannabis: the drug we still can't accept", 4 March). In my work as director of a drug...

Hemmed in and scrapped over by powerful neighbours, in two thousand years the peninsula has suffered five foreign occupations and 900 separate invasions, including four wars in the last century alone. Korea has been stomped on by Mongols and Manchus,...

Sir: Ron Kerr and Chris Spry (letter, 7 March) should not attempt to rewrite history. The Tomlinson report did argue that improvements in London primary care/ general practice would lead to a reduction in the need for hospital beds. Paragraph 77 stat...

Sir: In this supposedly free land of ours, I have the right to drink myself to oblivion, or otherwise harm myself in a variety of ways that many of us enjoy frequently, such as eating too much fat, breathing the air of London or playing computer game...

Sir: You recall ("Baring the City", 4 March) the admiration expressed by "Cardinal Richelieu" for Barings. Although Cardinal de Richelieu, the eminence rouge of King Louis XIII, was a man of sharp intellect and some prescience, he unfortunately died ...

So much for conventional wisdom. The potential star pupil has become the dunce of the financial class. Since the start of the year the dollar has dropped 8 and 11 per cent respectively against the yen and the German mark, the two other anchor currenc...

I was evacuated from Tokyo to the countryside as a small girl, but other members of my family, all of them civilians, lost their lives to American bombing. It is a little known fact that 130,000 died in Tokyo on one night alone: Dresden was not the o...

Sir: The Advertising Association congratulates the Government on its responsible and principled im-plementation of the Infant Formulae and Follow-On Formulae Directive (Letters, 3 March). All advertising is governed by restrictions, and the regulatio...

If the first Korean impression of Britain was founded on a dim and distant vision of wealth, the same is probably true for how we see the South Koreans today. Beyond one or two memories of the Seoul Olympics in 1988, most Europeans probably have litt...

The greatest problem I have when I try to comprehend Mr Hughes's decision to quit is that if "nobody" knew anything about his extramarital ding- dong, why in blazes does he confess it now? Admittedly, I am one of those who does not believe politician...

Sir: I was most impressed by your leading article "Suburbia turns to Buddha" (4 March). In an increasingly cynical world, it is refreshing to read a piece that attempts to understand the burgeoning appeal of Buddhism rather than marginalise or trivia...

The European Union can draw several lessons from the latest troubles on the currency markets. One is that there is no point in continuing to pretend that a single currency could come into effect by January 1997, the first target date set in the Maast...

Sir: We are told that the new competitors for the British Gas domestic market will buy gas from British Gas, deliver it through the British Gas network and yet charge their customers less. Presumably they will achieve this feat by paying their direct...

Sir: Your discussion of the bed closures issue ("Untried cure kills hospitals", 6 March) misreads what the King's Fund has said, as well as misreporting the policy of the NHS. Worldwide, there is no doubt that hospitals are becoming ever more efficie...

Dr Mawhinney's predecessor, John MacGregor, had a disturbing enthusiasm for all things on four wheels. He proposed that motorists should to be charged electronically as they passed a toll point and that the money raised should be spent on new roads. ...

Sir: Jonathan Eyal ("Russia's charm offensive", 28 February) tries to prove that "the Kremlin's interests remain diametrically opposed to those of Western Europe". Therefore the East Europeans' desire to join Nato, and to do it almost immediately, se...

Sir: I do not condemn Peter Kerry. He is a child, I would surmise by his recent notorious journey, who is having difficulties accepting the values and morality of the society in which we all have to live. Peter's "adventure" has even served as a usef...

Sir: Surely the Prime Minister must be aware that machinery already exists to trim excessive salaries and bonuses: it is called income tax. The addition of five pence to the present 40-pence rate, and the creation of a new tax band at 60 pence to be ...

Counsel: Your name is Sidney Greenleaf ? Witness: It is. Counsel: Do you or do you not own a car ? Witness: I do. It is not a crime to own a car. Counsel: Nobody is suggesting that it is a crime, Mr Greenstreet. Witness: Greenleaf. Counsel: Greenleaf...

They're everywhere. Liberal bishops, bashed around the mitre a bit by Margaret Thatcher, are reasserting themselves. Last week David Sheppard, the Bishop of Liverpool, spoke about how Christianity should be "uncomfortable for the fat sheep ... both a...