Letter: Adopt a cone

The Department of Health's withdrawal of funding from the Overseas Adoption Helpline ("They'll be grown up by the time you get one", 15 December) is another example of the Tories' contempt for initiatives that reek of compassion. Contrast the treatment and effectiveness of the doomed adoption helpline with that of John Major's defining achievement: the "Cones Hotline", which has no such problem in obtaining funding.

I have a solution. Why don't prospective parents adopt a road cone? As for those thousands of languishing orphans, dress them in Day-glo orange anoraks and line them up to create another contraflow around the M25.

Terry Bennett

London E16