Maybe the answer is something along the lines of the current proposal, but without the sham and the tweeness, and with a diverse function.Yours faithfully,Julian BassettLondon, SW2. From Mr N. Metcalfe

Sir: After failing, for over six months, to remove wallpaper from my house using a steam stripper and chemical wallpaper stripper, I had given up hope.
However, after experimenting, I discover the most effective cure is wallpaper paste! One coat, left for 20 minutes, and the wallpaper is removed like a dream.Why?Yours incredulously,N MetcalfeSheffield11 January. It would be nice to establish the pre-Blitz atmosphere, but this is not easy.

Far from being a genuine and people-orientated development, it is in reality a hulking steel-framed office block, a patronising transatlantic sham designed to get around the mediocre tastes of Prince Charles, and a public which won’t be overjoyed at yet another office scheme.The question is what is to be done instead. I was under the impression, probably incorrectly, that it would to some extent recreate the original street pattern, and maybe some of the atmosphere that existed before the Blitz.
Since then, I have become aware of the true nature of the scheme. From Mr J C. Bassett

Sir: When the proposed scheme for the redevelopment of Paternoster Square (Section Two, 8 January) first emerged, I warmed to it.

I visited the exhibition in the crypt of St Paul’s and thought it seemed warm and humane, in contrast to the proposals by Sir Richard Rogers and others which seem rather tired and formulaic. Furthermore, water management in Namibia by open canal forms a lethal barrier to movement of animals.While British butchers may wish to avoid British beef because of their fear of BSE, perhaps the vegetarianism of butcher Ken Bell’s grandchildren is a far better solution to the problem than his demanding Namibian beef.Yours faithfully,J A TimmerLondon, SE19. Additionally, the degradation of natural grassland caused by livestock grazing is evident to anybody flying over Botswana. From Mr J A. Timmer

Sir: I was concerned by your report “Mad cows? Not out of Africa?” (10 January). The production of beef in the fragile arid regions of southern Africa where rinderpest, tsetse fly and foot-and-mouth demand the segregation of cattle from wildlife (which have natural immunity to some diseases) has necessitated the construction of vast fences which prevent wildlife having access to their traditional water, grazing and migration routes.
This has resulted in terrible suffering to indigenous grazing animals and has decimated some species.

It is this lack of family doctors in training which is perhaps the most important factor in the understaffing of our accident departments.Yours faithfully,E .E .J MartinBedford11 January. If one adds to this the increased requirements for health screening, the flood of paper now required by the Government about all our activities, the great increase in litigation against GPs and the increased demand for services at weekends and at nights, it is clear that the job of a GP has both changed and expanded hugely.Young doctors see this great increase in work required of GPs, with no increase in income and a lowering of public esteem in the profession, and they decide not to enter family medicine. In some cases, patients are cared for at home under the “hospital at home” scheme. When these patients are discharged the work that was previously done in the hospital is added to the tasks of the GP.At the same time, the GP is having to get involved in purchasing the care for his patients. Large psychiatric hospitals are being closed up and down the country. However, the number of doctors training to become GPs has fallen by nearly 25 per cent over the past few years.Recently, more surgery is carried out on a day-care basis, with a patient being discharged on the same day as their operation.