Letters Briefly

THE 'Oxford figures' heard muttering about floods of 'Mickey Mouse' professors in the ex- polytechnic universities ('We've had enough', 9 May) would be even more alarmed if they realised that 50 per cent of them may actually be Minnie Mouse professorships.

Brian Bocking, Tisbury, Wilts

'MANDY, Secretary' (Opinions, 'Would you ever do a runner?', 9 May) might like to know that in many instances when she runs out of restaurants 'just for the hell of it', or if she's drunk, it's the poorly paid staff who are made to pay for her - the unpaid bill is deducted by the management from their tips.

Barbara Atkinson, Twickenham

IS IT surprising that racial discrimination should exist within the police force ('The ordeal of PC Prem', 9 May) when your own journalist writing of the Sikh constable's background, pronounces that apart from a few Asian reminders, his semi-detached home is 'very English: peonies in the back garden, children's toys on the patio' and incredible as it might seem 'wall-to-wall carpet']

M Evans, London NW6

IT WAS somewhat disingenuous to describe Andy Gray as a 'former Aston Villa striker' ('Lots of money and the right result', 9 May). As one of the main presenters of Sky's coverage, he was hardly likely to say that it's been rubbish, was he?

M Cunningham, Wolverhampton

ANOTHER radical bookshop in London (Letters, 9 May) is the Freedom Bookshop in the East End. It has been next to the Whitechapel Art Gallery for 25 years, has a large stock of anarchist, libertarian, syndicalist, situationist, pacifist, and environmentalist material, and it recently received the compliment of a violent attack by fascists.

Mary Lewis, London E1