Sir: It is a sad indictment of our society that, in the same week as Brian Appleyard writes an excellent article concerning the spiritual bankruptcy of our money-worshipping culture ("Money makes the world go away", 14 June), and on the same day that...

Paul Vallely finds a grey area somewhere between tribal peoples and tobacco companies Listen ... can you hear it ... it's the sound of the hillsides of Rwanda where in their thousands the dead lie silent ... Listen ... it's the only message there wil...

It would seem that they are walking with their eyes wide open towards a great disillusion. Donald Dewar, the social security spokesman, is among the very best Labour frontbenchers. He is armed with the fruits of the Borrie Commission on social justic...

Sir: Even before George Orwell's prediction of the National Lottery in 1984 (letter, 10 June), St Paul, in his letter to Timothy, wrote: People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge...

Sir: I feel I must take issue with the recent spate of articles by your Science Editor and your Scotland Correspondent, reporting the recommendations of the Department of Health's Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (Coma...

Sir: Andrew Neil warns that "the folk who run Britain's media" ("Any more takers for digital TV?", 16 June) are in danger of letting the future pass them by. His warnings are timely but, in the meantime, he has allowed an important event to pass him ...

Sir: I think Bhikhu Parekh ("The race for respect and recognition", 19 June) is wrong to argue that "respect and recognition" represent an advance for black people. "Recognising" or celebrating ethnicity tends to obscure why it should be an issue in ...

Sir: Dr Phil Thomas's letter ("Medication and madness", 16 June) is a sad case of question-begging prejudgement of tragically important matters. He asserts that the issue concerning the relative merit of drugs and of "understanding" is a matter of "v...

Sir: In your leading article "Greenpeace, right or wrong" (16 June), you say that the energy used to dispose of the platform on land would be greater than dumping at sea. You forget to take into account the fact that, if disposed of on land, the thou...

Cost of taxing Tax collectors in Beijing have been banned from attending banquets at public expense. New anti-corruption measures prevent officers from using public funds for dining, dancing or night-clubbing.

Shortly afterwards I began to encounter the dentist's receptionist on my way to school. At first I looked forward to seeing her as she was quite attractive. She always smiled and said "Good morning", and I continued my journey with a spring in my ste...

1846: The first official baseball game is played between the New Yorks and the Knickerbockers at Hoboken NJ. 1885: The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York from Paris. 1910: Father's day is instituted by Mrs John Bruce Dodd of Spokane, Washington. 1...

Sir: The French Ambassador, Jean Gueguinou, (Another View; "Nuclear tests are safe", 16 June) makes a poor case on behalf of a country with a reputation for logical thought. How does the independence and defence of France depend on the safety and rel...

With the assembled company I discussed a recent conversation with the playwright Brian Behan, when he said it behoves us all to encourage persons of the paramilitary persuasion to write books. "Once they start writing books they are on their way out....

Such a viewpoint would be missing the point. For a well-constructed problem can equal the beauty, and far exceed the purity, of anything one may find in a game. You just need to make the effort not only to solve it but to understand what the composer...

The appointment last week of Louise Woolcock and Pauline Clare as, respectively, the school captain of Rugby and the Chief Constable of Lancashire are just the latest examples of the trend. By this I do not of course mean that there is a trend for wo...

Sir: I would like to address a number of points, of both accuracy and substance, which are raised in Rosie Waterhouse's article "Crying wolf puts more kids at risk" (15 June). 1. By using the term "sexual interference" the NSPCC is drawing attention ...

Sir: The recently announced decision by France that it will conduct further nuclear tests in the Pacific is contemptible. As my own small protest I have decided that I shall no longer buy any French wines, but shall rather, as a gesture of solidarity...

(past tense) A nostalgia for past events or situations the unpleasantness of which you have forgotten. As in "Wasn't it wonderful to see old Maggie on Frost the other day. At least she was a real leader", or "Of course we were poor - my mum drank, my...

Linford Christie, one of the greatest sportsmen Britain has produced, announced his retirement, claiming that neither the British media nor the author of his unauthorised biography had treated him or his achievements with the respect they deserved. W...

But this is what the public relationers adviser, Patrick Robertson, appears to have achieved. He sent a fax, as he thought, to Jonathan Aitken's private secretary. This was received by a certain David Scholefield. The next day Mr Scholefield received...

and Dr P. Bracken Sir: We should be grateful to Mind, Marjorie Wallace and others for highlighting the issues surrounding the use and abuse of drugs used in psychiatry (Letters, 12 and 13 June). Such drugs have been prescribed widely for nearly four ...

I'm sorry. We've just noticed that her letter is in fact headed "Midgets", not "Widgets". So no prize there, I'm afraid. "Only an absolute idget, could find any use for a widget," says Luela Palmer. "A widget," says Paul Clark, "can be combined with ...