Does anyone seriously believe that Britain, with its fractured social and political fabric, could have absorbed a country with a bigger population than the South-east of England, reeling from 40 years of dictatorship and economic collapse and achieved anything like the same progress?No; “warts and all”, modern Germany remains, in my book, the fairest and most democratic of all the larger European countries, in no small measure thanks to PR.HENRY LAWSONREADING, BERKSHIRESir: I promised my grandmother I would always vote, as she remembered the suffragettes and the struggle for votes for women. Schr?’s Social Democrats are instinctive defenders of the social market economy; the Christian Democrats have been similarly reluctant to share responsibility for any contentious measures.Such radical ideas as have emerged have often come from the smaller parties, whether it be the environmental agenda of the world’s most powerful Green Party, part of the Government since 1998, or the market liberalism of the Free Democrats. In Germany, radical change has the opportunity to filter through from smaller parties, eventually becoming part of the consensus, rather than being brutally and often clumsily imposed as under first-past-the-post.One more question regarding the flexibility and dynamism of the German model. This effectively means that VA schools will still be contributing to the costs of the programme.OONA STANNARDCHIEF EXECUTIVE AND DIRECTOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION SERVICE LONDON SW1 Germany shows why PR works Sir: Alan Norman (letter, 16 May) nails one myth about German politics, only to propound another – that the PR system “puts a brake on radical change”.Whatever one’s views on the merits of Anglo-Saxon style economic “reforms”, Germany’s reluctance to embrace these lies much more with the attitudes of the two main parties, which between them control over 80 per cent of the seats in the Bundestag, than with anything to do with PR.

Building Schools for the Future is clearly a government initiative which requires a unique response to ensure the programme is fully delivered.Otherwise, Church schools – many of which are situated in areas of substantial social challenge – would have been discriminated against because they would not have been able to fund the building requirements within the collapsed time-frame of the initiative.Under this agreement, £17m will be transferred from the existing capital programme for VA schools each year. Jools Oliver is the Jade Goody of the moment, an engaging “ordinary” person we have only ever met through television, but who many people still find extraordinarily interesting.
In Jamie’s School Dinners, Jools loudly denounced the cameras intruding into her domestic life, wept buckets in front of millions of viewers over untrue allegations about Jamie and other women, and bickered with him over the amount of time he spent with the family.He chose her name – she apparently hates it. Moreover, the good ones we’ve had have not been continued for long enough. In California, per capita electricity consumption is no greater than it was in 1975, thanks to an enlightened set of energy-efficiency policies, especially in the period 1985-1995 when consumption was slightly falling despite economic growth.In the UK, policies to implement energy efficiency have generally been inept and incoherent. He hasn’t listened, and he hasn’t learned.MATTHEW RHODESLEAMINGTON SPA, WARWICKSHIRESir: It mystifies me that we’re trying this nuclear power blind alley again before getting serious about energy efficiency, which has a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the environmental impact.In Germany and Switzerland, CO2 emissions have been falling since 1990 and 2000 respectively, partly thanks to energy efficiency.

No non-voluntary lifestyle changes are required.No other issue can possibly symbolise Blair’s betrayal of the vision he sold in 1997 more than a decision to go nuclear. Some sediment lifted off the bottom, and this served to obscure anything he might have wanted to say. The Foreign Office will reward him for this talent, for it is the one it prizes above all others.In response to a question from David Winnick about the Government’s position on Uzbekistan, he said in one complete sentence: “Clearly, once the facts are established we wouldn’t want to prejudge the response of the international community.” Connoisseurs agree that this swill is of the highest standard.Chris Mullin contributed something from a position so remote in the backbenches it has a postcode. The energy efficiency and microgeneration market is highly accessible to innovation and enterprise by small companies, and offers global export markets.