Her Majesty opened the Queen's Gallery as early as 1962 and this summer Buckingham Palace will again
Her Majesty opened the Queen's Gallery as early as 1962 and this summer Buckingham Palace will again be open to the public. The "exorbitant entrance prices" at Hampton Court are the responsibility of the agency set up by the Government whose lack of arts funding is a scandal. Leigh HattsLondon SE1. Sir: The debate about a referendum on the European single currency draws to its climax. Sir: The Royal Collection does not belong to the state (letter, 6 March) and does not receive public funding. Numerous works are on loan and even before the Queen recently placed her collection in the care of trustees pictures were toured for free viewing in municipal galleries The collection has never been more accessible. None of them wants a superstate, but they favour a union in which member states retain their national identities and autonomy for all matters that are not agreed in common.Wishful thinking that they might fail or that Britain can stop them will merely repeat the costly errors of the past, when we chose not to join at the start.Ernest WistrichLondon NW3.
For them, in a politically united Europe of 370 million, rising to 475 million within 20 years, a Germany of 80 million inhabitants will no doubt be important and influential but certainly not dominant. This has always been one of the principal motives for European integration ever since the creation of the European Coal and steel Community in the 1950s. Difficult though the process has been, we are well on the way to an economic, monetary and political union, which has always been a clear objective for most EU members and Germany in particular. That proposition is not acceptable either to most of our EU partners or to Germany's eastern neighbours Above all it is not desired by Germany herself. Sir: Andrew Marr thinks further European integration is too difficult and we had better come to terms with the status quo in a Europe that will inevitably be dominated by Germany ("Don't fudge it: the European question is Germany", 7 March). He then took the brave step of cutting the cylinder open (a highly risky thing to do which would breach the safety regulations in any modern chemistry laboratory), and found that the tetrafluoroethylene had polymerised to give the greasy white solid polytetrafluoroethylene, which became known as PTFE or Teflon. D Roberts, FRSCBebington, Merseyside. Sir: I enjoyed your article "What on earth has space done for us" (4 March).
However, you seem to have got the facts confused in describing how Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon in 1938. You say "the gas had reacted with the cylinder, which was made of tetrafluoroethylene". Tetrafluoroethylene is a gas, not the sort of substance cylinders are made of. As I heard the story from Professor Eric Banks of Umist, an authority on organofluorine chemistry, Plunkett was surprised to find that a cylinder which should have contained tetrafluoroethylene was registering on the pressure gauge as being empty. Two years ago, some folk thought they had spotted a character change in the author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg. Previously rather bland and accommodating, he had turned nasty and impatient, growling at guests on his radio show and writing dirty stories Bragg was reinventing himself.And I like the new version.
Bragg the Bastard has more edge than Melvyn the Mellifluous, and generates more light He made an adjustment and it worked. Very often it does, and it certainly beats the more pathetic attempts of men to defeat their mid-life blues, such as dumping their wives and kids.So, Sir Cliff, the good news is that I would like to join you on the moor The bad news is that I want to play Cathy.. If you're older than me, you've been through it; if younger, well - you have it to come.But I understand very well why Cliff wants to be Heathcliff. He has spent a lifetime being civilised, wholesome, decent and dentally perfect A model of effortless self-restraint.