Letters: In Brief

Sir: It is Geoffrey Brace (letter, 3 September), not the Queen, who shows ignorance: the civil list is only obtained in exchange for Crown Estate revenue which recently paid a record pounds 113.2m into the Treasury. This was worth 14 times more than the pounds 7.9m civil list, which now only pays Her Majesty, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip. Also, a survey this April of the country's richest showed that the Queen had fallen into 94th place: she is very far from being the "richest woman in the world".

Mrs JENNIFER MILLER

London SW15

Sir: Your leading article (2 September) claims that we need the euro to help us weather the threatened world recession

You say that uncertainty about the euro could be bad for the UK. I agree with you, but this hardly makes the euro a contribution to our economic stability. Rather, a global recession is an extremely dangerous time to be embarking on such a leap in the dark.

Our best hope of stability in a turbulent world is to set interest rates to suit our local conditions. Our period in the ERM shows what happens when we neglect to do this.

NIGEL HUBBARD

London N1