Letters in brief

lI AM afraid that Michael Leapman ("Is Rupert Murdoch out of control?", 3 December) entirely misrepresents my polemic in the Literary Review. It does not blame Mr Murdoch or the Sun for the ills besetting British society and culture. That would be facile. Mr Leapman may be confused by the headline (for which I am not responsible) but I would advise readers to refer to the text itself. It would then be clear that my argument is far more subtle.

Roy Greenslade, Brighton

lI WAS curious to read that Peter Bamford, the managing director of WH Smith, wants his customers to be informed and tempted ("Smith's torture on the rack", 3 December). That will be why my local branch has started putting CDs in unopenable cases so the full track listings remain a mystery and also why, I am told, it is considering plastic wrapping for books.

Steve Blower

Northallerton, N Yorks

lREGARDING your article, "Red Cross fights 'new barbarism' " (3 December), I would like to point out that, to my humble knowledge, Cornelio Sommaruga was never Swiss economics minister.

Thomas Stadler, London SW7

lWHETHER it was deliberate or a Freudian slip, Alan Watkins's use of "bankbenchers" to describe Tory MPs (3 December) could give us a deserved addition to the political vocabulary.

Paul Hibbert, Leeds