Several people of my acquaintance have told me that they are seriously considering taking out private health cover, in order not to have long waits for diagnosis. Is it possible that the staff shortages in the Royal Berkshire, the Royal Surrey County hospital and Frimley Health (Report, 7 June) are a way of encouraging more of the prosperous to abandon the NHS?
Martin Cooper
Bromley, Kent
• What a pity Channel 4 missed the chance of setting a good example by paying a sensible salary to its new chief. No one should be paid £900,000 a year (Report, 6 June).
Beverly Cochran
Eastbourne
• I am surprised that Harold Evans in his glossary of errors (6 June) does not mention the replacement of the splendid word procrastinate with the erroneous prevaricate to mean “to put off, delay”. Prevaricate means “to speak falsely with intent to deceive, ie lie”. Guardian: “frequent offender.”
John Hurdley
Birmingham
• Further to Professor Kit Hill’s assertion that scientists who consider that they have achieved certainty are called engineers (Letters, 7 June), I am reminded of an old joke: If you ask any physicist “what is two plus two?”, they will say “four”. If you ask an engineer, the answer will be “well, it’s four, but to be on the safe side, let’s call it 10”.
Mark Redhead
Oxford
• Not so, Professor Hill. We know that one plus one is not necessarily two and that measuring road distances, for example, in mm, is not always appropriate. Some respect, please. The engineer and economist Vilfredo Pareto’s principle may help you out.
John Lyness
Reader emeritus in civil engineering, Ulster University
• Brevity in nominative determinism has rarely been better served than in the case of the late arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (Obituary, 8 June), known to his associates as AK.
Brian Robinson
Daingean, Co Offaly, Republic of Ireland
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