Letter: A load of nonsense

Sir: Elizabeth Nash's article "Espana proudly flies its tilde at heart of Europe" (18 January) propagates the myth that Brussels ordered Madrid to remove the n on Spanish-made keyboards in 1991. In fact, the EC ruled that Spain's existing ban on t he circulation of n-less keyboards violated the single market.

The introduction of keyboards without the letter was then equated by some with its doom, the argument being that Spaniards would be unable to type it. This developed into the story reported in serious newspapers and on television that the EC had actuallydecreed its suppression, leading to the amusing but pointless patriotic linguistic debates described by your correspondent.

Yours, Charles Dietz Hove, East Sussex 16 January