Sir: David Howell's essay, while rightly drawing attention to the prodigious economic growth being enjoyed by much of Asia, seems to me wrongheaded in its pessimistic tone. "Energy starvation will dish them, we are reassured," he writes, as if the do...

Pigs down plane Flatulent pigs caused an emergency landing when a flight from London to South Africa was forced to turn back because its fire alarms went off. "The collective heat and methane that 72 pigs gave off caused our alarms in the hold to act...

Sir: When it comes to discussion of teachers' pay, we are told that teaching standards are falling and that teachers will have to work harder to justify any pay increase. Yet, when record A-level results are announced, we are told that the exams have...

The case of Michael Barrymore is a classic of its kind. There is no public "need to know" whether Barrymore is gay, alcoholic, Buddhist or vegan. His act has always been based on a sympathy for people, and a gentle comedy. He does not make gay jokes,...

It makes financial sense, say the City columns. It's necessary for survival, maintain the companies. Dragging a drug to market over the hurdles of research, development and testing by the authorities takes on average 10 years, costs on average $200m....

It was a disaster waiting to happen. The charismatic, happy-clappy movement in the church encourages highly emotional responses among worshippers; and there is nothing more succulent to a minister who also happens to be a power junkie than the sight ...

Sir: No wonder Microsoft is taking over the world. They managed to take over 20 pages in your independent publication without there being any mention of their main rival operating system, Macintosh System 7. System 7 has been available since 1991. On...

Sir: Frank Field criticises our colleague Roy Hattersley for not being modern enough in the anti-poverty strategy he advocates for the next Labour government ("Poverty, but not as you know it, Roy", 18 August). He tells Roy to look forward to the new...

Sir: We used to get them pretty regularly coming around the sixth form college in Singapore, where I taught for six years until the end of their last school year - the David Howells, who were thrilled to find such order and discipline and astounding ...

So I recognise something John Biffen said the other day, half in jest. He said he was a "Tory of deference". When I rang him at home in Shropshire to unpick this idea a bit, he laughed and said he had been a very disobedient Tory, at least so far as ...

Sir: Sir Rhodes Boyson rightly questions (Another View: "Can A-levels really be better?", 18 August) the academic standards of present-day A- levels. As a mathematics lecturer, I am inclined to agree with Sir Rhodes and would like to add that A-level...

Sir: At a time when we are remembering the end of a world war that involved fear, pain and death, not only to armed forces but to millions of civilians, can we not rejoice in Alison Hargreaves's life? Her family and friends enabled her as a woman to ...

Within the state sector the situation for girls is less rosy and Professor Smithers's assumptions are less apt. In many areas parents do not have the option of single-sex girls' schools unless they pay fees. Three decades ago there were 2,000 state g...

Following on from the lesson of the last article, it is important to first decide which are the candidate plays. In this position Black can consider four plays: a) 13-8. This is safe but non-constructive, and does nothing to improve Black's position....

On the contrary, I am dismayed. What he has in effect announced is that, in two years' time, Labour will stop discriminating against men - why wait two years? It is wrong and it should be stopped now. The new Labour Party constitution commits the par...

Sir: So, Alison Hargreaves is dead. She seems to have been very lucky to have been able to do exactly what she liked, when she liked and how she liked, with little thought for either husband or family, who now face a future without her. She was not a...

In outline, the strategy is well judged. Its three main areas - education, constitutional reform and an environmentally sustainable economic policy - together make up a coherent and worthwhile political platform for Mr Ashdown's party. Of course it i...

Sir: In 1591, an Elizabethan gentleman, John Kay of Woodsome in Yorkshire, wrote this in his commonplace book: This summer, anno domini 1591, was the driest sommer that hath been within memoryed man, for betwixt the XXXth day of March and Michaelmas ...

Sir: Jim Ballard must be insulted at the implication that his children will somehow be worse off than the children of the other climbers killed so tragically on K2 because their surviving parent is a man. Yours faithfully, Penelope Rose London, SW2 2...

On trains, seat-hoggers not only stake out their two-place territory with more paraphernalia than anyone should need on a journey, but spread their newspapers, lap-tops, mobile phones and Burger King bags on the table in front of them. If they are le...

Sir: Congratulations on your leading article ("Take the long view, Tony", 15 August) urging Tony Blair to honour Labour's commitment to a referendum on voting systems for the House of Commons. It is worth reflecting that the impressive reforms effect...

Over this first summer of criticism of Tony Blair's leadership, the only question about him which should interest voters is whether he will make himself the prisoner of his early success. He has, after all, had an astonishing run, changing policies, ...