Sir, - So, almost 80 per cent of cars failed the NCT last week due to deadly dangerous defects such as seat covers not colour co-ordinated, fuzzy dice incorrectly aligned and obsolete St Christophers on the dashboard. Meanwhile (surprise, surprise), the Irish Sea gets a safe-as-mother's-milk certificate from the Marine Advisory Board.
Forget the bombs, poison gas and incendiaries in the Beaufort Dyke. Ignore the tonnes of plutonium pouring out of BNFL since Sellafield was a little Windscale, all that harmless radioactive waste dumped off our coast is still safely tucked up on the seabed. Call me a cynic, but I wonder: could the high failure rate of cars in NCTs have anything to do with the fact that it costs £35 a test? A handy little earner like car-clamping, serial driving tests, disc parking, and clean, efficient sea-safe Sellafield.
Oh, wise up, don't you know that deregulation of electricity supply is on the way? Keep an eye on the Tricolour; it's the last remaining clue we have as to what country it is that we live in. - Yours, etc.,
Joseph Taylor, Pembroke Street, Dublin 4.