Letter: Diana margarine

I SUSPECT that a spiritual malaise lies behind the almost desperate quest to raise more and more millions for the Diana Memorial Fund - first, postage stamps, now pots of margarine (report, 25 March; Comment, 26 March), and charity balls in the United States. It is demeaning and degrading.

I fear that we are slipping into the appalling delusion that the pursuit of money, so clearly seen in some boardrooms, among fundholders in offshore trusts and among the Lottery ticket / Premium Bond-buying public, is somehow rendered acceptable if we convince ourselves that we are raising funds for charity. We may indeed end up helping to restore Brighton Pier or the Royal Opera House, but we really wanted to win a million or two.

When Flora margarine puts Princess Diana's image on its product and says that it is donating all the proceeds to the Memorial Fund, it is time for all right-thinking people to cry out. Don't try to fool us, or yourselves. This is advertising. The pursuit of money, even for charity, has its limits.

The Rev RICHARD HAYES

Rector

St Mary Woolnoth

London EC3