Letter: Millennial doubters

Sir: In reply to Dr Sally Wraight (letter, 18 December), Dr Williams has not missed the point at all. He, like me, probably has no objection to sending up a cheer as the year rolls from 1999 to 2000. The objection is to the confusion of this cause for celebration with welcoming in a new century and millennium.

Are the detractors of numerical accuracy equally happy with the common references to the "millenium"? Of course not, because that is a sign of illiteracy. It grieves me that our society has such little regard for numeracy compared with literacy. At a time when government is seeking to promote literacy and numeracy hours in schools, I find it depressing that no respected body such as the Government or the BBC has taken this opportunity to educate the public about what is actually being celebrated.

All have bowed to popular ignorance without a murmur. It should never have been allowed to reach the stage where people who know what they are talking about are being dismissed as pedants and party-poopers.

VALERIE PARKER

St.Albans, Hertfordshire