FOR ALL the Prime Minister's evident enjoyment of throwing himself into the European fray, he looks like a good horse-trader rather than a visionary. Thank God Shakespeare doesn't only belong to the dry and dull purists.MARY ZACAROLIOxford. Sir: My Finnish friends must be bemused by the headline "Chief constable: MP was in sauna"(17 March) Sensible fellow, I imagine them thinking. Sir: Howard Jacobson is right (Review, 23 March) Shakespeare in Love is tosh, and I loved it It was such good tosh. Indeed it takes tosh to new heights, something Shakespeare did in his day with A Midsummer Night's Dream, for example.

Furthermore, it makes Shakespeare accessible to a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise read him. I went to see the film with an Austrian friend who has a degree in English and had always steered clear of Shakespeare. After seeing the film, she went away determined to try reading one of his plays. As for the Christopher Marlowe joke, this got a real belly laugh in the cinema, something Shakespeare would have been proud to have caused. Congratulations to all those involved in the film You deserved your Oscars. I am constantly saddened by the young couple, he with his Lotus car and Gucci shoes, she with her Versace dress, who only want to live in a thatched half-timbered cottage with leaded windows and low beams to bang your head on (provided they have all the latest gadgets inside and a streamlined kitchen).ROBIN BUTTERELLChester.

Until we start to teach good contemporary design in schools from an early age this will be an ongoing problem. I fear, however, that his words echo those of former presidents over the past decade. The British public, more than their continental counterparts, are conservative to a degree in their taste for design and architecture. It is a rarity for even one of them to be sent to prison for repeated ignoring of court orders regarding paternal access. Is this not equally intolerable and what does this government propose to do about it? What price sexual equality?JOHN C GRIFFITHSRedbrook, Monmouth.

Sir: I applaud the desire of Marco Goldschmied, the new president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, to convince us all of the importance of good design ("A fresh facade for British architecture", 22 March). A couple of thousand of them are rightly sent to prison each year for such conduct. However, there is ample research to show that nearly half of all single mothers deliberately obstruct or completely block access to their children by the fathers. Free trade is not intended to subvert national health strategies simply to provide US shareholders with a fast buck.

Can we now expect Colt to demand greater access to European consumer markets for its precision-engineered weapons? If so, perhaps the Medellin cartel should call on the American government to allow unrestricted imports of cocaine; at least that is a product the US public seems to want.MARK WOODWARDLondon, E15. Sir: That a divorced or separated father should "run around in a BMW and pay nothing towards his child's upkeep" is, as the Social Security Secretary says, intolerable ("Darling backs prying by CSA", 22March). Classes of thirty are a disgrace and it is about time class size was brought into line with the private sector.TONY CALLAGHANHarpenden, Hertfordshire. Sir: It beggars belief that the US is invoking free trade agreements in an attempt to force Europe to accept GM animal growth hormones ("US and Europe row over GM milk", 22 March), which are not only unnecessary, but actually harmful to human health. And pigs might fly.Tomorrow: Who should be the next mayor of London? The debate continues to rage in the West Country.. Sir: Mentors and special tuition for 10 per cent of bright pupils.