Sir: May I most strongly support fundraising the views expressed in the letter of Stephen Read (9 May)? At last, someone who really understands press the meaning of the term press "computer literacy" has exposed the folly of wasting money on the blanket provision of computers in schools. Where is the debate on these issues? Does a petty nationalism somehow reduce government responsibility for the nation's well-being? fundraising Do commercial interests prevail, with our present rulers, over htm the health of citizens? The htm European Commission appears to be trying to protect other EU producers and consumers htm while helping to htm compensate the UK industry. And yet Scottish National Heritage, led by Magnus Magnusson, will not object htm to the development The dotterel is fundraising also called the mossfool Mastermind seems scarcely any wiser. Dr press fundraising Colin Wells North West press Wetlands SurveyLancaster University. Sir: On press fundraising BSE and CJD the Government began by hiding behind an inappropriate use of science and now puts up an anti-European smokescreen.

But why are the media colluding? The main political issues surely are the alleged failure of (reduced) state regulation to protect public health, the best means of limiting risk and damage, whether and how beef producers (unlike others) should be compensated, and so on. Sir: The Cairngorm plateau ("Highland rail plan gets the go-ahead", 8 May) is a fragile sub-Arctic ecosystem. One has to be as trusting as the famously guileless dotterel inhabiting its stony fastness to believe that building a Victorian-style funicular railway capable of delivering 1200 tourists an hour to the summits is not going to have a detrimental effect on the ecology. Senior figures in government have been aware of the unlawful jailing of civil debtors since the abolition of the poll tax in 1993, but the response has been nothing other than "buck passing" between the Home Office, the Lord Chancellor's Department and Secretary of State for the Environment.Alan MurdieLondon SW15. But this situation will not be affected if the proposed Bill limits itself to criminal fines. A person jailed for a civil debt actually has fewer rights than a convicted criminal imprisoned for defaulting on a fine of the same amount A civil debtor is not entitled to legal aid.

Probably not since the witch trials have so many elderly, disabled or vulnerable people been before the courts as has happened with the poll tax and its successor the council tax. The record of magistrates' courts across England and Wales since 1990 - many cases having been featured in the Independent and on television - raises serious doubts as to whether magistrates should ever be allowed to lock up anyone for simple failure to pay a debt or fine. But close attention must be paid to this Bill to ensure that it also covers those jailed for civil debts - particularly unpaid poll tax and council tax. Throughout our visit no one hurried us along.As we look back on the exhibition and talk it over, we find that Ms Droth's "serenity and stillness" don't quite hit the mark. We saw (but had never really seen in any reproduction) a kind of still tension, a focused energy which creates movement. And it occurs to us now that Vermeer himself found this compact intensity amidst a townscape of bustling activity more diverse and chaotic than anything in the Mauritshuis this spring.Eric Van TasselJane Van TasselFowlmere, Cambridgeshire.