6 FEBRUARY 1993, page 23

Sir: 'serious Root-and-branch, Knock-it-all- D Own -...

to the imaginations of observers, not the nasty world that doers inhabit. For the barbed and uncomfortable reality of strug- gling to run things . . . is a world away from • the......

Letters Low Marks For Patten

Sir: The impudence of John Patten beggars belief (`Just keep rolling along', 30 Jan- uary). He 'exposes the folly of drastic con- stitutional reform', but nowhere mentions the......

Thinking Of England

Sir: Auberon Waugh suggests that the Princess of Wales's unhappiness was the cause, not the effect, of her husband's adul- tery (Another voice, 30 January). What is certain is......

D Is For . . .

Sir: I am slightly surprised at your corre- spondent Janine di Giovanni (All Systeme D at the Holiday Inn', 23 January) being unfamiliar with the French concept of le systeme D,......

Sir: John Patten's Defence Of The British Constitution...

sad ignorance of his- tory. He quotes with approval the Duke of Wellington's notorious endorsement of the legislative system in 1830. Yet, as every schoolboy knows, this diehard......

Sir: Auberon Waugh Repeats The Myth That Dame Barbara...

is the Princess of Wales's step-grandmother. For the Princess to be so honoured one of her grandfathers would have had to have married the Dame. How fortunate for them and for......

Mammon And Blarney

Sir: The Blessed Virginia (creeper), Bot- tomley who may have been an inspired pre- fect and captain of her school hockey team, has swallowed the Tomlinson Report on NHS......