Sir: Lord Howe and his colleagues (letter, 5 January) assert that if Britain is not to be marginalised in Europe, this will depend "more than anything else" on safeguarding our right to enter a single currency "at any time". This is tantamount to joi...

It is inconceivable that a letter of this sort could have been written by politicians of equivalent standing on the other side of the Channel. Everywhere, at all times, and especially on anniversaries such as this, continental politicians lay great s...

Sir: It is not Diane Coyle who has forgotten that, during the Eighties, more than a half of the Third World's debts owed to the commercial banks were written off as losses; it is Nigel Wilkins (letter, 2 January) who has forgotten that these write-of...

Sir: Sinan Akinal (letter, 30 December) asks us to remember the "degree of tolerance and religious freedom that existed within the Ottoman Empire", adding that "things ... started to go wrong in the Balkans towards the end of the 19th century". He mi...

Sir: Miles Kington (30 December) tells us that every New Year's Eve in Germany they show the same film on television, Dinner for One, James. We do the same in Norway and in Sweden. To us Norwegians, it is not really Christmas until we have watched Di...

Sir: Ken Jackson ("Welfare Reform? We really don't have any choice", 2 January) is right. Our long-standing link with the Muslim community of Gunjur in The Gambia provides us with a cruel mirror in which to reflect on our own society. In their societ...

Yes, all things considered, I am rather in favour of the Millennium Dome. There. Feeling better already. Better out than in. I should add that I am not paid by the Government to say this, that Peter Mandelson has nothing on me, that I am seeking no o...

It was a vote against a patrician Conservative regime grown insufferably arrogant, and contemptuous of the electorate, a regime well represented among the signatories of the letter; the people who gave us ERM. M J KNIGHT Slough, Berkshire

Michael Streeter recognises (Saturday Story, 3 January) that "there are good reasons to protect juveniles facing criminal allegations". He then adds, "in cases of teenagers accused of similar offences ... and named by the media, government law office...

Sir: The fact that only six Conservative Members of Parliament joined a Euro Commissioner and a small number of former MPs in signing the letter (5 January) on Conservative Euro policy does, I believe, demonstrate that their views are those of a very...

I did. I was out on the doorstep every weekday night for three weeks. If there was one thing I learnt it was that the broader public have an intense distaste for a party which perpetually squabbles in public. The question all Conservatives have to as...

Now 27, I wish to study for a PGCE and teach primary children. Does the Home Secretary think I would be suitable for such a post? I find myself hoping that William Straw is also convicted. The weed will not harm his prospects as it has mine. K SELBY ...

This year has been no exception. Indeed, although John Major was indubitably in the news a lot, and also indubitably our Prime Minister until May, the name John never hit the headlines. If a paper had said: "John flies out", nobody would have known w...

Alas, it will probably not be yours truly but the usual suspects from middle England who will be rounded up to give their ultra-reasonable opinions on all this. In these gale force days you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows, a...

Elegant bunkum but bunkum nonetheless. First, many of the most dramatic economic effects of EMU - including the locking of interest rates by the participating countries - will probably be apparent well before 2002. Second, if Tory policy is so pragma...