When I left Northern Ireland last November its population was little more than 1

When I left Northern Ireland last November, its population was little more than 1.5 million. I hope the Child Support Agency isn't chasing me.Michael MullanBradford, West Yorkshirel IAN JACK seems embarrassed by the closing lines of Braveheart, that those who died at Bannockburn "fought like Scotsmen" (31 March). How then did they fight? Like dervishes? Ian Jack writes like, I don't know ... a Scotsman - where's the shame in that?James Kincaid, Nottinghaml GOSSIP may be a modern form of grooming ("Have you heard the latest?", 31 March) but a better way of explaining how we now relate to each other is by the kind of muttering or mumbling that the anthropologist James C Scott has identified as a form of resistance in peasant society. l NICK Cohen's suggestion that we will be compelling prison officers to undergo drug tests is wrong ("Prison officers face drugs tests", 24 March). We would be negligent in our duty if we did not examine every aspect of drug misuse within prisons but we do not have any such plans.

Sufferers, with their attempts to sound like their own children, arouse irritation among their peers and amused contempt from the young. Treatment is straightforward. Sufferers should try reciting a little- acknowledged fact: most of our population is over 35 and, due to demographic changes, will soon be over 40.Dr Richard CawldrenLondon W14. The rigorous application of this common sense is the theory of relativity. John EnderbyWalton, Warrington. HAVING read "Can you talk Britspeak?" (Real Life, 24 March), I diagnose a classic case of yoofitis. This affects mainly middle-aged executives in the media, producing the delusion that most of their potential readers (or listeners) are under 25 and must be wooed frantically in their own language (or Britspeak). Science is simply a systematic application of common sense to the universe The rejection of common sense is the rejection of science. What is common sense has to change with the accumulation of knowledge.

Since telescopes have shown that the universe contains billions of suns, so far apart that light takes countless years to travel between them, then common sense has to encompass the notion that no place in space or time can be considered the centre of the universe. Common sense is everyday logic informed by reliable knowledge. It appeared in his own column: "If an idea fits with common sense, then it is almost certainly scientifically false." This shows a misunderstanding of the meaning of both common sense and science. The reduction does not imply that there has been a corresponding one in the incidence of stomach cancer itself, witness the fact that the Japanese have developed skills in detecting pre-malignant stomach changes R A Weale London SE1.

I DID not have to look far for an example of a negative comment on science likely to promote its public misunderstanding ("Lewis Wolpert", Review, 31March). One of the risk factors is salt, the consumption of which is dropping there because food is now kept fresh in fridges A diet rich in fish may be one rich in salt. Yellow and green vegetables are having the beneficial effect recorded elsewhere, but as much as 16 per cent of the improvement in stomach cancer death rates has been attributed to screening. HAMISH McRae's advocacy of a Japanese diet to lower our intake of calories needs qualifying ("Beef scare will improve our food supply", Business, 31 March). Even though the Japanese death rate from cancer of the stomach has been falling during the last 25 years, it is still almost three times greater than ours for men, and almost double ours for women. Where there has been a case of BSE, it has been in an animal brought into the herd from a non-organic origin.Organic herds are not fed animal or fish protein. There can be no question of organic beef producers being misled by product labelling on feedstuff bags - as suggested by Kevin Taylor - because organic feeds are certified to national standards, and these require that there is no protein from animal or fish sources.We should be aware that there is a choice in how our food is produced and that organic food offers the best chance of an unadulterated and safe product.Mark FisherShipley, West Yorkshire.

Mandy Norton Hexham Ladies' Lifeboat Guild, Corbridge,Northumberland. We can choose how our food is produced Organic meat offers a safe alternative AS FAR as is known, no cases of BSE have occurred in organic herds, or in herds where organic standards have been in operation since before 1985 ("The birth of BSE", 31 March). Even without the aid of our Zimmer frames, we raised over pounds 9,000 last year Not bad for an in-shore guild. Surely these regulations apply equally to trains in public service? R M JohnstonGloucester. I AM writing on behalf of myself and other members of our guild to tell you that we take exception to being described as, ".. elderly women rattling tins and handing out flags ...