18 MAY 2002, Page 39

Five alive

From Mr Dominic Low Sir: While Stephen Glover (Media studies, 11 May) must speak for himself, he certainly doesn't speak for me. I can barely remember when I last watched BBC programmes, and the only small spark in an increasingly dark television world comes from Channel 5, especially its films in the evening. Sure, there are so-called titillating late-night documentaries on the sex industry and so forth, but these make a fourhour political speech by Fidel Castro seem positively electric, and, once sampled, are safely left for ever.

Dominic Low

Fakenham, Norfolk

From Margaret-Anne Halse Sir: Stephen Glover's remarks on traffic being stopped to allow politicians to pass resonated strongly with me. It's not just in England that it happens. During the run-up to the US presidential election in 2000, George Bush — who at that time was not yet even the Republican candidate, merely a hopeful — visited the San Francisco Bay area, where I live. Driving innocently along near my home, I noticed traffic halted and police at all the intersections. I was alone on the road. A traffic cop screamed up on a motorbike and yelled at me to pull over, which I did, thinking there must be some terrible emergency. About ten minutes later, a huge motor cavalcade roared past, and I discovered from the local news that it was Governor Bush arriving from the airport. I was utterly outraged.

I was reminded of Soviet Russia, where everything was brought to a standstill when some member of the nomenklatura hurtled by. Call me naive, but the arrogance of our politicians does still frequently amaze me.

Margaret-Anne Halse

California. USA