4 SEPTEMBER 1999, Page 26

Cheep idea

From Mrs Katie Grant Sir: I was having difficulty believing that Petronella Wyatt finds Mr Hague even secretly sexy (`Leave Will alone', 28 August), but all was made clear when she declared he resembled a miner. Unless The Spec made a typographical error and the word was supposed to be 'minor', an oblique reference to poor Hague once being compared to a foetus, Petronella is obviously 'optically challenged'. Hague resembles no miner, but perhaps bears more resemblance to a miner's canary, smooth of head and sharp of eye. And, of course, it is to the canary that many miners owe their survival. Amanda Platell might take note.

Katie Grant

4 Belmont Crescent, Glasgow