Letters in brief

l Swansea is indeed the most happening place in Britain, as readers of poetry know. Add to "Cool Swansea: the seeker's guide" (Real Life, 6 April) the work of Stephen Knight, a very fine poet who celebrates his birthplace particularly in The Sandfields Baudelire, a book-length sequence of poems written in a Swansea accent.

I Garlitz, Felixstowe, Suffolk

WE are frequently told that the state can no longer finance pensions and nursing care for the old. But why, if society can afford this privately, can it not afford it publicly?

John Boud

Colchester, Essex

IT wasn't a socially selected elite that betrayed France in 1940, but the elite from the other place, the Ecole Normale Superieur ("Off with grand heads", 6 April). Herriot, Daladier, and Blum were all Normaliens. The post-war period simply witnessed a shift from one elitist state institution to another with Pompidou, also a Normalien, a transitional figure. Plus ca change!

Kenneth Burgin

Woodford Green, Essex

YOUR front page article "Labour heads for a landslide" (6 April) omits to mention that two simultaneous polls gave the Liberal Democrats over 30 per cent and over 50 per cent more support than did MORI. Your suggestion of erosion of the party's support is therefore greatly exaggerated .

David Hindley

Corbridge, Northumberland