Remember Spurs in all that snow at Nottingham Forest not for the first time

Remember Spurs in all that snow at Nottingham Forest; not for the first time they were practically invisible. Why not try black and white vertical stripes, something in the style of that other United team perhaps? Not only highly visible but it might even inspire Andy Cole to find that very elusive net. Tom CadenSheffield. Sir: Manchester United should not opt for an all-white shirt (report, 16 April). It is not like a theatre - one does not just buy the right ticket and take a seat. It is a club, and no matter how much you earn you must wait to be invited to become a member. Some people will never be invited, however wealthy they become Steven Goodall Brookwell, Chesterfield. Approximately 12 English syllables best duplicates the length of Japanese haiku in the traditional form of 17 onji.Caroline GourlayKnighton, Powys.

Sir: After watching a BBC news item on the divorce of the Duke and Duchess of York, and the lengthy description of the behavioural unsuitability of the Duchess, my 11-year-old daughter remarked: "I don't know why they are having a go at her, she's just normal. It's them that are abnormal." An interesting perspective on changing attitudes to the monarchy, perhaps? C I Betton Camberley, Surrey. Sir: Both John Prescott and Clare Short seem to have misunderstood one of the fundamentals of the class system in Britain (report, 15 April). This word means "sound symbol" and is much shorter than the English syllable and much more uniform in length. But concentration on the 5-7-5 syllable count of haiku is misleading and obscures other important features of this form - a certain flexibility where appropriate can serve the spirit of haiku more faithfully than a rigid adherence to the "rules" at all times.The syllable count in haiku is often misunderstood Japanese poets do not count syllables, they count onji.

Although this literary form is one of the oldest in the world and has been practised in the West since the beginning of this century, there are still those who believe it can play no part other than in the Japanese poetry tradition. James Kirkup is a skilled writer of haiku and has played a key part in bringing this genre to a wider audience in the West, but while I have great respect for him on both these counts I take issue with his statement that every haiku should have 17 syllables. As a member of the British Haiku Society I am as concerned as anyone that the essence of haiku should not become diluted as it becomes more widely practised. Now is the time to deal with it, not next year or the year after, when society has to deal with thousands of heroin-addicted ex-inmates. The current drug testing policy must be postponed until an effective support and rehabilitation mechanism is introduced.Darren LeeHM Prison HighpointNewmarket, Suffolk. Sir: I was very pleased to see that your poetry editor chose four haiku for the Daily Poem today (16 April). These remain detectable in the body for a much shorter time, thus giving a greater chance of avoiding a positive drug test. An ill-conceived policy to reduce the drug problem is creating a huge number of heroin addicts that must one day be released back into society.I am not condoning the use of drugs, but I believe that if prisons continue to cut back on education, training, work and time out of cells, then inmates will be pushed further into the grip of drugs.

Some inmates who do not have prison jobs or training spend even longer in their cells For some, drugs are seen as a way to relieve that boredom. Most realise the damage they are doing to themselves, most would like to do something about it, but the prisons do nothing to help them. The introduction of drug testing in prisons has actually made the problem worse. Inmates who once smoked cannabis are now turning to heroin and other hard drugs. Sir: I am a prison inmate, and have served 25 months of a four- year sentence. Recent press reports on drug use in prison, and the introduction of drug testing, have highlighted a problem that should be made known. It is true that there is a great deal of drug use within prisons, but it is the result of a far bigger problem Boredom.