What are they afraid of? I am a Tory supporter living in the constituency of Sir

What are they afraid of? I am a Tory supporter living in the constituency of Sir George Gardiner, and I pray that the pros get their act together and relieve me of the agonising choice between abstaining at the next election or voting Labour just to get us going again in Europe.Yours sincerely,ERIC SUTHERLANDChipstead, Surrey10 May. I would go further and accuse the majority of Tory MPs - as well as the majority of the Cabinet - of failing to speak out effectively against the misguided minority of Euro-antis in their party. Such consumption is a symptom of good health, not a cause.Yours faithfully,DENZIL PAYNEBrighton5 May. From Mr Eric Sutherland Sir: Three cheers for Polly Toynbee for articulating the disgust felt by many like me for the feebleness of the pro-Europe lobby.

Now (report, 10 May) it is promoting the privatisation of nuclear electricity on the grounds that this will reduce prices. Have the Prime Minister's views suddenly suffered a 180- degree shift? Or are his policies determined purely by short-term expediency?Yours faithfully,PETER SOZOUBirkbeck CollegeLondon, WC1. From Mr Denzil Payne Sir: I wish you'd stop parroting claims about the salutary effects of wine-drinking ("A bottle of wine a day 'keeps angina away' ", 5 May). The only demonstrable fact is that someone who enjoys a few glasses a day is likely a priori to be a better-balanced individual than either a heavy drinker or a teetotaller. From Dr Peter Sozou Sir: Not long ago, the Government promoted VAT on fuel and power on the grounds that this would encourage energy conservation. After the Israeli parliament claimed "Jerusalem, complete and united" as "the capital of Israel" in 1980, UN Security Council Resolution 478 declared the annexation to be illegal.If American politicians believed that there were votes and campaign contributions in upholding Palestinian rights under international law, the prospects for the peace process would be brighter.Yours faithfully,ROB KENTBirmingham10 May. In 1990, he pointed out that such a motion declares on an issue that our government - and many outside observers - see as better left to negotiations among the parties involved, rather than decided by unilateral action.Sadly, Senator Dole is now trying to outflank the most pro-Israel president for decades through a crude appeal to the Zionist lobby.Unfortunately, international law will be ignored by Israel's supporters in America However, it forbids the acquisition of territory by force.

From Mr Rob Kent Sir: Patrick Cockburn is wrong to report that Senator Bob Dole had "hitherto shown little interest in the location of the US embassy in Israel" before introducing his congressional bill to relocate it to Jerusalem ("US embassy plan adds to Jerusalem land row", 10 May). In the past, Senator Dole opposed congressional resolutions giving credence to Israel's claim to Jerusalem as its capital. In Barnsley, the Labour party is neither Liberal nor dead: we are a modern democratic socialist party, reborn and ready for government.Yours sincerely,ANN MACDONALDThurnscoe,South Yorkshire10 May. As we have just completed the biggest consultation exercise in our history, where all sides of the debate were given a fair hearing, this comment is not only misleading but also offensive to members.If Mr Garfield had set aside his view of Barnsley as a town of whippets, he would find that the Labour Party in Barnsley is as vibrant as the town. Statements such as the present leadership is so terrified of activists saying or doing the wrong things that they are exercising a degree of Stalinism that limits open debateare totally unrepresentative of ordinary Labour Party members in Barnsley and manifestly wrong. More particularly, it is a question of whether Western countries have the determination, skill and vision to build a consensus among the broader membership of where the UN system is going and of what changes in it are necessary.Yours faithfully,JOHN GORDONLondon, N611 MayThe writer was British Permanent Delegate to Unesco (1984-5.).

From Ms Ann Macdonald Sir: As a member of the Barnsley Labour Party, I am surprised by the views attributed to activists in Simon Garfield's article, "They're not bitter, they're for Blair" (9 May). If those states fail to exercise their powers of control, it is they, rather than secretariats, who should be pilloried.The key issue of UN reform is that of political leadership by member states. As intergovernmental organisations, UN bodies are legally, financially and politically responsible to their member states. To our shame, we are still out.In suggesting that UN bodies are basically uncontrollable, except by an as yet hardly existent international public opinion, you are falling into the same trap as the British anti-Europeans in attacking the European Commission. We left despite progress towards reform, which officials in Whitehall privately recognised was the most that could be achieved in the time available, and despite the pleas of our EC and Commonwealth partners to stay on and help them complete the process. Unesco had many faults, but they were not those of financial corruption (both the US General Accounting Office and the British Audit Office gave it a clean bill of health), nor of the director-general, Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, riding roughshod over the wishes of member states.Unesco's weaknesses, in fact, largely stemmed from decades of Western neglect and indifference and could not possibly have been completely remedied in the short 20-month period we arbitrarily gave to the organisation to pull its socks up (the Americans gave even less). From Mr John Gordon Sir: You perceptively analyse what is wrong with international agencies ("A world order of scandal and graft", 11 May), but you are wrong in the conclusions you draw from the one instance in recent years when Western countries have withdrawn from a UN agency (the US from Unesco in 1984, the UK in 1985). These moves were far more closely linked to the domestic agendas of the Reagan and Thatcher governments, and in particular to the influence in both capitals of the bitterly anti-UN, right-wing US Heritage Foundation, than to what was actually happening in Paris.