BRITISH SPORT: I DO worry about the British attitude to sport. It seems to rely totally on success, regardless of any factors which affect a fair result.

Paula Radcliffe was never going to win Sunday's marathon; the heat and the course were best suited to those who were familiar with them.

But the media were oh so quick to question her spirit when she dropped out of the race, despite the fact a medical expert said she was exhausted.

Do we really want her to endanger her future career just for the sake of national pride?

And to add to my scepticism about our attitudes, Darlington FC are again attracting the critics because they did not win. No mention of course that they were the better team, had a penalty refused and worked tirelessly.

But that's the British attitude - reliant on fortune rather than effort. - Dave Cadman, Darlington.

POST OFFICES

CITY of Durham Conservatives would like to add support to the Durham residents of Gilesgate Moor and Nevilles Cross who are campaigning to save their local post offices which are threatened with closure.

Post offices are a vital local facility and often a centre for the local community, particularly for the elderly.

City of Durham Conservatives will be writing to Postwatch to express our support for Gilesgate Moor and Nevilles Cross post offices. We want to see them remain open and at the heart of their communities.

Thriving communities are built on the foundation of local services and facilities - we must use them or lose them. - Michael Fishwick, City of Durham Conservatives.

THERE is no doubt that the Post Office could have handled the earlier closures of post offices better and it has quite rightly been castigated for its management failures there.

But the fact is it is responding to a falling away of business, as more and more people get their benefit or pension paid into a bank account.

So whilst high street banks are showing massive profits, the Post Office tightens its belt.

But that is not the whole story. A great deal of pressure is being put on people not to stay with the Post Office.

Indeed, there seems to have grown up within pension and benefit offices either a pro-bank or an anti-Post Office culture. This manifests itself in many ways, too numerous to list here.

And many of your readers will have personal experiences which they might share.

My point is to tell those folk who are intent on demonstrating outside post offices that they are in the wrong place. Instead, they should be ensuring that the pension and benefit service gives their clients the choice which Prime Minister Blair promised them. - James Doherty, West Auckland.

EUROPE

THE new European Commissioners have got together for the first time and, from their pen portraits, they have the ability to carry on the traditions set by such as Neil Kinnock, Leon Brittan and Chris Patten of looking at universal problems in the round.

In welcoming the new Commission, Leon Brittan pointed out the need for the adoption of the revised constitution in order that the enlarged union can work efficiently. He also underlined the fact that the revised constitution actually cedes more powers to national governments than there are under the current arrangements. His recognition that there is a lack of understanding of the role of the commission highlights the need to have more discussion with the public.

The adversarial nature of British politics impinges on areas where there ought to be a consensus, clouding issues where in private there is common agreement. The current debate on Europe appears to be dividing along party lines causing a great disservice to the British public. We need to listen to the concerns of people and address them in a factual way taking into account the pros and cons and to trust them. - Bill Morehead, Darlington.

EDUCATION

EA Moralee deplores (HAS, Aug 19) the poor knowledge of English history displayed by many of our young people today.

Sadly true, but their command of our native tongue is even more defective.

The English language, both spoken and written, was something of beauty in the days of Keats, Wordsworth, Kipling, Trollope and Austen.

Conversation and letter-writing were close to art forms, and it is not many years since schoolchildren routinely studied and memorised passages from such authors.

It seems unlikely that they still do. Now there is a widely held view that the eighth letter of the alphabet is haitch, and the letter "t" is silent unless it is the first letter of a word.

Grammatical errors abound in everyday speech, and Mike Amos frequently gives us real-life examples of how to misuse the apostrophe.

Perhaps spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary are no longer popular enough with our youngsters to justify their continued inclusion in the syllabus. - Bob Jarratt, Caldwell, Richmond.

CROP CIRCLES

WITHOUT question UFOs exist on the psychological level. It has been estimated that around half the population of the United States alone believes in alien spacecraft.

But do UFOs exist on the physical level? The scientists are quite sure that extraterrestrial beings must exist somewhere in the universe, and have some form of advanced technology.

So there is no doubt that exotic spaceships are visiting our world and having tangible effects on the environment, such as vegetation being scorched or flattened.

What this means is that at least some of the crop circles which appear in fields in southern England are the patterns left by UFOs touching down, rather than the work of human fraudsters. - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

TERRORISM

HUGH Pender (HAS, Aug 20) chooses to ignore any threat to Britain, instead "suggesting" I'm demonising particular people.

Mr Pender assumes al Qaida doesn't see Britain as a prime target, we are therefore thankful the security services aren't assuming anything.

Not once does Mr Pender suggest our security forces have done an excellent job in at least thwarting the terrorist thus far.

As for terrorists, I really don't care what colour or creed the terrorist is, he can be green with pink spots, I simply see a terrorist, someone as likely to kill a Muslim as they are to kill a Christian.

Three generations back my family came out of Sligo, Ireland. That makes me a Catholic, yet I despise the IRA like the next "sensible" man.

I genuinely love Britain, her history, monarchy, traditions. She is the best and most tolerant nation on this planet, bar none. I believe the British Muslim community will be badly served by any Islamic terrorist atrocity in Britain. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.