Letter: The Dome: it's crystal clear

Sir: Your report on the spiralling costs of the public bill for the Millennium Dome (30 June) brings to mind Ruskin's remarks about Crystal Palace:

The quality of bodily industry which the Crystal Palace expresses, is very great. So far it is good. The quantity of thought it expresses is, I suppose, a single and admirable thought ... that it might be possible to build a greenhouse larger than ever greenhouse was built before. This thought and some very ordinary algebra are as much as all that glass can represent of human intellect.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose! Mandelson take note.

ROGER HEWELL

Bath