5 SEPTEMBER 1998, page 25

Carlos No Jackal

Sir: I cannot understand why almost every- one — Harewood, Milnes, et al. and now Michael Tanner (Arts, 29 August) — is so dismissive of the auto-da-fe scene in Verdi's opera......

Fair Helen

Sir: I've never met the lady, but your refer- ence (Leader, 29 August) to 'the unlovely Labour MP Helen Brinton' was ungallant, unkind and unworthy; untrue, too, from her......

Misty-eyed

Sir: I was interested in the claim that the first contact lenses were available in 1961 (Leading article, 22 August), subsequently amended to 1959 (Letters, 29 August), because......

Sir: Christopher Fildes Is Away And The Russian Economy Goes

into meltdown! Is there a connection? Ian Jordan 3 Terrapins, Lovelace Road, Surbiton, Surrey......

Letters Secret Sympathies?

Sir: Despite being a committed Labour supporter all my adult life, I've been a read- er of The Spectator since I first went to uni- versity in 1974. Reading it on my Friday......

Great Scot

Sir: Not for the first time I'm inclined to agree with Magnus Linklater CA bletherer bites back', 29 August). I lent his faither' and his mother. Eric was a brilliant novelist......

Sir: Magnus Linklater Appears To Consider Being Rude...

Hill a trait pecu- liar to Scots. As I have never met an English person willing to be polite about him could we not find some Anglo-Scottish common ground on this issue? William......

Spell Check

Sir: Just in case anyone should wonder what was meant by 'local bands' at the end of my letter on Alexander the Great (15 August), I did, of course, write 'local bards'. I know......

Russia Not Ready

Sir: At a dinner, the Duchess of Marlbor- ough asked the Tsar why he did not give the Russian people the democratic govern- ment which was so successful in England. He replied,......

Bugbears

Sir: Why was Chapman Pincher so dim as to conduct his clandestine interviews in the same seat of the same restaurant over the years pugs in the banquette', 22 August). People on......