It can only do this if there is an effective patent system in place to encourage it to maintain its multi-million pound investment into the research and development of new medicines.Yours sincerely,Trevor M. The next revolutions in alleviating human suffering, through conquering diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cystic fibrosis, will be the result of biotechnological or genetic research.The pharmaceutical industry needs to be able to explore such exciting possibilities. Not only is the term imprecise and arbitrary, but it is surely immoral not to encourage inventions which have the potential to alleviate human suffering. Any controls which society deems necessary should not be applied to inventions or developments only through the patent law.For these reasons, restricting patentability through European law’s “morality” clause is both unnecessary and inappropriate. A patent merely enables a patentee to limit unauthorised commercial use of a product or process – it neither permits commercialisation of the invention nor confers rights of ownership. From Dr Trevor M.

Jones

Sir: Kevin Watkins (“Whose property is life?”, 20 November) is right to highlight the question of genetic engineering as one for public debate.
But it should not be confused, as Mr Watkins seems to do, with the issue of patenting biological inventions. Manufacturers have made a positive response by offering the reduced- and low-fat foods described.Yours faithfully,JOHN NEWMANDirectorBritish Cake, Chocolate andConfectionery AllianceLondon, WC224 November. From Mr John Newman

Sir: In presenting the introduction of low-fat foods as some kind of marketing gimmick (“Too good to be true?”, 24 November), Sarah Edghill has ignored one of the main drivers of this trend – namely the Government’s Health of the Nation target to reduce total fat consumption to 35 per cent of energy intake.
The target was set because of the overriding need to reduce the incidence of premature death from coronary heart disease, and the medical evidence pointed to a reduction in fat consumption, together with other measures such as giving up smoking and increasing exercise as the best means of reversing this trend. Now that many body builders (allegedly) take anabolic steroids, side effects dictate that the reverse is often true – the fullness of their G-strings leaves much to be desired.
Yours faithfully,S MaricFulwood, South Yorkshire26 November. Brazier is not really interested in Rupert at all; he might be more at home with Noddy.Yours sincerely,Victor WatsonHomerton CollegeCambridge27 November.

From Dr S. Maric

Sir: Jim White is wrong to propagate the myth that body-builders have “fuller G-strings” (“Running on the road to nowhere”, 25 November). Brazier is critical of the contemporary Rupert because his moral condemnation “is reserved for ‘institutional crime’ that society visits upon itself, such as pollution”, and he accuses him of being like church leaders who “studiously avoid censure of the activities of lawless individuals”. If he had looked more closely, he would have seen that even in the early annuals stories of villainy are considerably outnumbered by stories in which something has just gone wrong and Rupert helps to put it right. For very young children, at the centre of their reading is the idea of Rupert as a helper.None of this silliness would matter if it were not for the fact that the serious subtext of his article is really to do with punishment. He contemptuously complains that “the only principle here seems to be that we should be kind to aliens in trouble”.

Try saying that to today’s very young readers, David Brazier, and you would find that, in their developing moral awareness, they would tell you we should be kind to aliens if we meet any.I suspect that Mr Brazier has got hold of a couple of Forties annuals and compared them with a few recent issues. He still combines two almost impossible ideals: a child’s ideal of perfect freedom in an expanding but ultimately safe imaginative world, and an adult’s ideal of perfect child behaviour. Rupert is to children what they would like to be, and he is to parents what they would like their children to become.Mr Brazier reserves his most ferocious criticism for a story in which Rupert assists some stranded space-travellers. The culture of the Thirties and Forties is not the culture of the Nineties, and the readers of that time are not the same as the readers of today.Some of these changes are for the better: I notice that Mr Brazier has nothing to say about the unacceptable race stereotypes that no longer appear in Rupert annuals.The astonishing thing is that Rupert has changed so little. A fictional character who has endured for almost 80 years will inevitably change. Poor Rupert! – “the last standard-bearer of public decency and civil conduct is falling prey to the malaise of our times”.
Brazier’s central point derives from a comparison of Alfred Bestall’s wartime Rupert annuals with those of today.

From Mr Victor Watson

Sir: The opening paragraph of David Brazier’s article about Rupert Bear (“Rupert loses his bearings”, 24 November), which links the decline of the economy and the British Empire, the low esteem of politicians and the collapse of the Royal Family with Rupert’s loss of faith in “law-abiding upright behaviour” was a model of muddled thinking. Any government that dodged this issue would surely not be worth its salt.Yours faithfully,Ann WiddecombeMinister of StateHome OfficeLondon, SW127 November. The short procedure will not be limited to designated countries.It is vital that we take action to stem the growing number of undeserving asylum seekers coming to this country, who are currently costing the taxpayer over pounds 200m per year in benefits alone. The Home Secretary will announce likely candidates for designation at an early stage during the Bill’s passage.The distinction between designation and the short procedure was clearly signalled in the Home Office letter from which Ms Mills selectively quoted. There will, in effect, be a rebuttable presumption against claims from designated countries, although they will still be considered and asylum granted in exceptional cases An accelerated appeal procedure will apply Designation orders will have to be laid before Parliament.