I deeply resent paying the company's usurious levy for the privilege of squeezing myself onto its squalid, filthy, overcrowded trains; for patiently tolerating the "18 minutes to next train" indicator, with no announcement to explain or justify it, f...

The first is that John Prescott, in his capacities as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions has other, much more important fish to fry. Not every newspaper allegation is worth reading, especially if i...

HERE IS AN IDEA whose time has definitely arrived: charging PR firms for the press releases they bung through our fax machines. The Los Angeles Times-Washington Post news service has announced that it now bins any and all unsolicited PR fax messages....

The coup de grace was administered by those intellectuals who saw that jazz was becoming unpopular and might therefore be Art. This led to 15- minute bass solos, sheets of sound, free jazz and other phenomena that only a musician's mother could love....

I am sick to death of hearing the mantra "70 per cent of people support the ban". That means that 30 per cent do not. This a very large minority to have their views ridden over roughshod by Parliament on a matter which should be for individual consci...

I wonder if I will ever again enjoy the bliss of sitting on a train for such a length of time and not being subjected to people shouting into their mobile phones. ANDREW J CHISHOLM Northampton

This also creates unfair competition with terrestrial channels, who do invest in home-made programmes. These terrestrial channels are coming under increased pressure to cut budgets for kids' programmes, in order to compete. Our kids are told that Eur...

Dr Wordsmith writes: There are several reasons why people use foreign expressions. These include arrogance, snobbery, exhibitionism, pedantry, playfulness, superiority and a desire to show that one has had the money to spend time abroad. Nothing wron...

The Teletubbies' biggest achievement is that they have become a symbol for those who want to argue that children's TV is "dumbing down". The fact that the Teletubbies are designed to appeal to pre-school infants: to babies in other words, seems to ha...

Of course the polls show that a majority of Londoners will vote in favour of having a mayor. In the meantime, Archer's effort is entirely made up of volunteers, he says, including his new treasurer, wealthy businessman Greg Hutchings. "I haven't spen...

Miss World is now arguably the most-watched annual television show in the world, with more than 2 billion viewers in over 150 countries. In this country, Sky believe that there is life in Miss World, for they televise it. We are alive and kicking, an...

The key words were "deceitful and manipulative". If cigarette companies were made out to be dishonest and unscrupulous, they were "delegitimised" and people started to ask themselves hard questions about their own behaviour. Becoming aware of what li...

Birt: We have recently come under a lot of criticism for faking documentaries. Does anyone have anything to say to that? Man with Glasses: Is this the thing about the Learner Driver? Birt: Yes. Man with Glasses: Oh, that. I can explain that. Birt: Go...

We believe this requirement could lead to division rather than partnership between parent and school and will impose an extra administrative burden on schools. Rather than the Government imposing this detailed legal requirement on all schools we want...

There were far more oil well and refinery fires in Kuwait than in all of Iraq. The retreating Iraqi troops deliberately set fire to 715 Kuwaiti oil wells and three refineries, which took months, not weeks, to put out. There were tank battles, in whic...

ROB MURPHY Newcastle upon Tyne

The charges by Cellnet, BT and Vodafone, which Mr Cruickshank describes as a "rip off", involve another dimension not emphasised in recent reports. Of the five billion calls made from landlines to mobile telephones, a significant number connect to re...