The Last Word

As a public service, and to further enhance the pleasure of BBC News Online users who should probably be getting on with their work, we welcome your comments and observations about the news. Submission guidelines at the bottom of the page.

GOOD WORK
In 'I feel my son is under a curse', 29 July, Connie St Louis describes conditions for black boys growing up in the UK. I'm young, well educated and hold down a good job. Yet on many occasions I've seen white women clutch their handbags for dear life when they see me - a black guy, 6ft 2ins, walking past them. It is irritating but I've learnt to ignore them. My advice - encourage your sons to aspire to good deeds/careers and with time they'll positively influence society.
Toye Akanni
Didcot, Oxon

BOB: FOR
Hope Dies... What's left?
Mark Munson
Woking

BOB: AGAINST
Re: Bob Hope Send us your tributes, 31 July. What about a separate page for people who couldn't stand him?
Dave
UK

HOME WORK
On your front page: "The Last Word: Why get on with your work when you could send us a letter?" Is this responsible? (This e-mail is sent from home.)
Samir Patel
Ilford, Essex

TOILET TRAINING
Re Toilet waste 'hampers rail repairs', 24 July, and The Last Word, 28 July. Was there ever a railway station in Flushing?
Jonathan Duckworth
Nailsworth

TOILET TRAINING (contd)
Martin Skiggs is on to a winner with his suggestion for flushing train toilets at certain locations to reflect our attitudes towards those places. It reminds me of a piece of railway graffiti on the sign in the toilet which said: "Please Do Not Use Lavatory When Train is at a Station". Somebody added underneath "Except at Woking". I trust we can expect Network Rail to provide similar in the future.
Nigel
Rome, Italy

GOOD POINT
Re: Train smashes speed record, 30 July: "A Eurostar train has broken the UK rail speed record by travelling at 208 mph". I think perhaps you misplaced the decimal point.
Jane Shuttleworth
Waterloo, Canada

LABOUR OF LOVE
Re: Loss of e-mail worse than divorce, say techies, 29 July. If they think like that, how are they ever going to marry in the first place?
Ken
London

QUESTION OF TASTE
Using the torso picture on the front page of your website is gratuitous - and sick (Arrest in 'Adam' torso case, 29 July). I've seen this used on TV too - why? Isn't it enough that we're told graphically that the child's body has been horrifically dismembered?
Sue Taylor, London

AVON CALLING
Re: Body found in suitcase, July 29, 2003). How about a weekly prize for stating the obvious? "A police investigation is under way in Edinburgh after the remains of a man were found in a suitcase which was pulled from a river. Lothian and Borders detectives describe the death of the local man ... as 'suspicious'." No kidding.
Shirley Munro
Cheshire, UK

HELP IS AT HAND
Is there any chance of a bit more critical analysis of the claims of adventurers such as Felix Baumgartner (Skydiver in record Channel flight 31 July) His attempt to glide his way across the Channel with the aid of a six foot carbon-fibre wing is no doubt brave to the point of being fool-hardy. However, it is debatable if being dropped by aeroplane at 30,000 feet can be considered "unaided". To say he is the first to cross the Channel unaided is wrong by more than 24 years. The Gossamer Albatross crossed the Channel on 12 June 1979. Its pilot, Bryan Allen, powered himself across the Channel in two hours and 49 minutes. That's what I call unaided, at least in the same sense that Lance Armstrong is unaided by his bike on Alpine ascents.
Steve Jones
Maidenhead

BURNING ISSUE
Re:Cyber-sleuths hunt file swappers, 29 July: In the 70s we copied vinyl to audio tape, in the 80s we copied music and computer games tape-to-tape, in the 90s we copied CDs to tape or started "burning" CDs. Nobody kicked up a big fuss. What IS the big problem with the internet, and since when have music companies given priority to artists' royalties over their own profits?
Mike Cooney
Paris

AVON CALLING
Big polluters fail to learn, 30 July. Why not require all water users to put their waste water back into rivers UPstream of their extraction point - and that includes water companies. If these firms start sucking in their own waste products, they'll soon learn to reduce them.
Adrian Kirkup
Salisbury, UK

LOVE AND CARRIAGE
So getting married costs £25,000.(Getting hitched makes you £61 a minute poorer, 30 July). You could have bought 50cm of Channel Tunnel Link for that.
Kieron Boyle
Oxford

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Last Word submission notes

We welcome your comments and observations on the news.

The Last Word is updated on Monday each week.

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