17 JANUARY 1970, Page 26

The Duke's tubes Sir: Pity the poor Common Market countries,

which, along with most, if not all. of the rest of Europe, have been enduring the miseries of British Standard Time, un- complainingly for years, when according to J. W. M. Thompson (27 December 1969) Britain has only now invented it!

That famous fog in the Channel must have isolated the unfortunate continent once again.