LETTER: The majestic voice of radio

Sir: In your article "Slump in audience for the Queen" (27 December), you make no mention of the fact that many thousands of people in Britain still listen avidly to the radio and would have heard the Queen's speech at 9am when they were having th eir breakfast. Not only was it a good speech but we felt fortified for the rest of the day because of it.

The Queen's Christmas message to the Commonwealth is the only speech she writes and reads herself and there are more reasons for retaining it than there are for withdrawing it. Many elderly people who love their monarch would feel impoverished by its abolition.

Yours faithfully, DAVID BRAGG Cambridge