This is not solely an English problem - the French language is a much greater culprit in its use of language offensive to women. MICHAEL MEADOWCROFT Leeds

1. How many bottles of Hooch alcoholic lemonade did Paul Gascoigne reportedly drink during a recent "bender" in Dublin? 2. How much National Lottery money has so far been left in Treasury bonds rather than spent on good causes? 3. Who - in effigy for...

But New Labour does have a radical mission, say its advocates. It may not be much concerned with securing for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry; it is, nevertheless, committed to reforming the antique and obsolete Brit...

Well done, lads, the Norwegians of the Nobel committee have said to John Hume and David Trimble, two of the key architects of the province's Good Friday agreement, keep up the good work. What, like the previous recipients? Or so the residents of Ulst...

I was widowed two years ago aged 48 and the widow's pension (not benefit) I receive is based on my late husband's NI contributions. No insurance company would dare to announce suddenly that it was not going to pay pensions to its customers. What this...

I MORGAN Lincoln

"Links to the food industry" is, unfortunately, a price to pay for having such good experts in the area. We cannot expect them to remain in an ivory tower, refusing all requests from industry to comment, consult and advise. We expect them to declare ...

Behind the theatre, bags of sand and cement are stacked against the walls. Inside, there are loose leads, unfinished paintwork and too few lavatories. Going to the ballet in the capital will, for a while yet, be like attending a house-warming party g...

Last week, the silliness reached new heights. Asda, the supermarket chain run by Archie Norman, chief executive of the Conservative Party, cancelled a contract with New Zealand and banned all foreign lamb from its shelves; this, apparently, in respon...

As a young man Lewes, then under the influence of Shelley, had believed that love cannot be constrained, which led more rigid thinkers to imagine that he lived in some sort of sexual commune. His marriage to Agnes Jarvis was happy with three survivin...

If the euro, and the EMU that it represents, fail, it will be because they are driven by a political agenda, hidden from us in 1971, by a cabal of politicians with conflicting motives and a common contempt for their electorates. In each case, someone...

Roughly half refuse, saying firmly that they radically oppose a House where hereditary lords can vote. It is, they add, profoundly undemocratic, a remnant of the Age of Deference. To support it is to exhibit nostalgia for a sentimentally glorified pa...