We British should be ashamed of our lack of linguistic competence as compared with our European neighbours, who commonly speak at least one other European language to a reasonable degree of fluency.Sub-titles would at least allow those of us who wish to gain in linguistic proficiency to enjoy the experience of hearing languages spoken by native speakers rather than a dumbed-down English monologue.MIKE WEAVER Hexham, Northumberland Orwell’s prediction Sir: The author of Nineteen Eighty-Four could not only predict a grim future but also one of gaiety and intelligent humour. He used it to express his fury, disgust or frustration at the unending indignities heaped upon him by that immortal duo. When these films were shown on television in the 1970s, my two very young nephews always greeted his appearance with cries of “It’s the Doh man!”ALAN REA Kingsholm, Gloucester Organically cut off Sir: On behalf of all your readers who live in remoter parts of the UK, the next time you do an “organics” supplement (5 April), would you please ask the suppliers you feature why either they won’t deliver to remoter or non-mainland parts of the UK, or if they do, why do they slap on such excessive delivery surcharges?ALLAN D FORRESTER Westray, Orkney Sub-titles preferred Sir: I entirely agree with your correspondent Marialette de Haas (Letters, 3 April).I have always been irritated by the patronising English voice-over which our media feel to be necessary whenever a foreign tongue is spoken. Hence the German terminology.DAVID WILLIAMS Bromham, Bedfordshire The Doh man Sir: Admirer though I am of the multi-talented and many-voiced Dan Castellaneta, I think Andrew Gumbel (2 April) is mistaken in crediting him with the invention of Homer Simpson’s trademark phrase “Doh!”That honour surely belongs to the late James Finlayson, longtime supporting player in many of Laurel and Hardy’s shorts and feature films.

The soft sign became our flat sign, while the so-called hard B was represented by a capital H which developed into both the sharp and the natural sign. A couple of years ago I asked my grandchild of 12, who lived close to the site, “Where was the Magna Carta signed?” The reply was “What is the Magna Carta?”V J G BROWN Granada, Spain German notes Sir: Explaining how Bach wrote his name in musical notation Michael Church (5 April) correctly states that the note B in German is H.However, A does not mean A flat In fact B stands for B flat. In the days when keyboards only had white notes, leading experimental musicians daringly started 6-note scales on an F and found that they did not like the sound of the B, so they created a second kind of B: a soft one (B flat). The failure of previous generations to recognise that history is more about analysis and interpretation than the recollection of great national events has no doubt helped to bring us to the current mess that is pompously called the war on terrorism.I note with optimism that school students played a major part in the demonstrations against the war, perhaps due in some measure to the injunctions of their history teachers to examine the evidence and challenge conventional interpretations.MALCOLM WILKINSON Senior Teacher Teeside High School for Girls Eaglescliffe, Stockton on TeesSir: The results of the history survey come as no great surprise. Hasn’t our government recently confused him with Saddam Hussein? Haven’t they also championed the distortion of history in their prevarications about the war in Iraq?As one of many history teachers spending the Easter break marking GCSE course work I’m reassured to note that for the most part those pedalling these current fallacies learned their history over 30 years ago. We know a mother whose baby was booked for adoption when she had severe postnatal depression although she had reared two happy, well-behaved, well-educated older siblings.

Only the support and intervention of three horrified local organisations prevented the permanent loss of her child, and the family is now doing well.When will the Government and politicians realise that current child protection policies often rest on a poor standard of case work, and that it is high time this expensive intervention was asked to provide proof of its effectiveness and lack of adverse effects?BEVERLEY A LAWRENCE BEECH Hon Chair Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services Surbiton, Surrey History lessons Sir: I’m not at all surprised that some people think Hitler was fictitious (“1066 and all that: how Hollywood is giving Britain a false sense of history”, 5 April). Providing young children for adoption is taking priority over giving practical help to families in need. Mothers are now lying in answer to questionnaires designed to detect postnatal depression, because they are afraid of losing their babies if they seek professional help.This is no idle fear. The insensitivity, cultural and racial bias and ignorance we have observed at parents’ meetings with social workers has been alarming.Recent research has confirmed what we already knew from our helpline. But the demonising of Islam, since the collapse of “communism”, has had appalling consequences.In spite of this the East End continues to offer much positive experience from which the rest of Britain could learn.The Rev Dr KENNETH LEECH St Botolph’s Church London EC3 Postnatal depression Sir: Whilst we would not condone the actions of a depressed Asian mother who snatched her children from foster care (“Hunt for depressed mother after children snatched in street”, 2 April), we can understand why she may have felt driven to it. She says, about the East End, “everyone there will tell you very little has changed”. In fact a great deal has changed, much of it for the worse.The City has been pushing its relentless way eastwards, leading to both gentrification and yuppification.