Letter: Briefly

Cole Moreton quotes Rory Bremner's co-writer John Langdon as describing Peter Mandelson as the reincarnation of Gerald Ratner (Profile, 7 December). He may find it of interest that they went to the same school: Hendon County Grammar School when I was there in the 1940s; later, probably even in their time, some sort of comprehensive

Michael Grosvenor Myer

Cambridge

LORD Brocket did not have a "Guards background" ("Now the punishment is boredom", 7 December). He was never a member of any Guards regiment but was for a short period in a Cavalry regiment - the 14th/20th.

J D Graham Duncan

(Ex Scots Guards)

Cromarty, Ross-Shire

RICHARD Lloyd Parry, ("A wet, warm, unhappy Christmas", 7 December) states "El Ninos ... have been recognised by scientists only in the last 20 years". How is it that I (and scores of others) have got a detailed description of the phenomenon in my introductory oceanography notes from Liverpool University from 1955?

June E Ball,

Stoke-on-Trent