Sir: David Aaronovitch misses the key point about congestion charges: they are socially divisive. The rich and those on expenses will happily pay, the dishonest will cheat, while others on lower incomes, the aged and disabled will be penalised. Either ban all traffic, after a referendum of city centre residents, or let people decide for themselves MARTIN HICKEY Sporle, Norfolk.. Sir: Deborah Orr says BT will replace its call centre staffs with more machines ("Trouble at the 21st-century mills", 23 November) Last month, to air a complaint, I dialled 150. I assume that the folks who place them on graves do so because they help them in some way.I don't think we have the right to be the taste police.The Rev BRIAN SAGARLittle Paxton,Cambridgeshire. All Church of England priests are not like the rector you describe, thank God. Of course there are rules, but there is also common sense, and common decency and there should be a bit of care, even love, shown to people who come asking for what to most of us sounds perfectly reasonable. I have had charge of four churchyards over the years, and in all of them there are gravestones that are not allowed - heart-shaped, book-shaped, shiny black, and other banned designs or materials.
Many of them were installed before I was the parish priest, and several certainly during my time there. I am not a plastic flowers fan, but I would never remove them from a grave. I am appalled that yet again one of my colleagues has proved to be so lacking in sensitivity. Sir: I read Elisa Segrave's article about her mother's intended burial place with mounting outrage and sadness ("Why my mother may never rest in peace", 22 November). I did meet Cliff Richard once (in a Hackney fish and chip shop just before his first appearance on ATV's Oh Boy! in 1959) but I've never bought a Cliff Richard record, so I don't regard myself as a member of "Cliff's Barmy Army". However, I'm delighted that our post-modern "Cool Britannia" celebrations of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ have been upstaged by a Cliff Richard song based on the Lord's Prayer.DAVID HALLAMSmethwick, West Midlands. Please let us have a little sympathy for someone who has been so basely betrayed for filthy lucre. RICHARD APPLEYARDReading, Berkshire. Sir: John Harris cannot get his head around the possibility that the "millennium number one" will be a record using words written by the man who started the whole thing off 2,000 years ago ("Praise be! It's the terrifying cult of Sir Cliff", 23 November).
They forget all he has done for the party and the funds he has raised for their cause. Sir: I am sure that most of us at some time have told a white lie about coming home late from the office but, while I do not condone in any way Lord Archer's behaviour, it makes me sick to learn of his furiously sanctimonious condemnation by the Tory hierarchy just to deflect attention from their own inadequacy. Crucially, the private companies would bear the risk of any cost overrun, not Londoners.This week I opened the Light Rail extension under the river from Docklands to Lewisham. It was built as a PPP, with the private sector raising the money and constructing it - through a private-sector bond issue. Unlike the JLE, it was finished on budget and ahead of time, not 18 months late.JOHN PRESCOTTDeputy Prime MinisterDepartment of the Environment, Transport and the RegionsLondon SW1. Private construction companies would maintain and renovate the infrastructure then hand it back to the Underground. Inevitably fares would be increased, when Ken wants to freeze them.And as the director of infrastructure finance at Deutsche Bank has been quoted as saying (in The Financial Times), "Ultimately, the taxpayer will pay more with Ken Livingtone's proposals."Under our Public Private Partnership (PPP), London Underground would do what it does best - run trains, signals, safety and stations.
