I think the owners of these should pay at least triple council tax as a social tax and deterrent.SIMON SMITHASHBURTON, DEVON Owners of ‘Arab News’ Sir: In “Hysteria, hypocrisy and half-truths” (7 February) Dominic Lawson mentions a cartoon carried by the Arab News. In the South Hams in Devon over 13 per cent of properties are already holiday homes, putting huge pressure on prices and making it very difficult for young families to buy homes. How does he expect me to save £100 for his Karaoke Santa in that time?ALISON LATHAMPINKNEYS GREEN, BERKSHIRE No more holiday homes Sir: I feel disappointed that The Independent should be so irresponsible as to encourage the purchase of holiday homes as an investment (“A new cottage industry”, 8 February). I have yet to make any money thereby: indeed, I have yet to find a cold-caller trained to meet such a reply. Usually, the conversation ends abruptly, but with the satisfaction that at least I held the upper hand!DAVID J LAMMINGGROTON, SUFFOLK Christmas is coming Sir: Our milk roundsman has today delivered his dairy’s Christmas catalogue for 2006, with inducements to order hampers before the end of March and a deadline for gift orders of 30 July. More fundamentally it is a mechanism for redistributing the spoils of globalisation.SIMON CHOUFFOTLONDON SW9 Cold call me only if you can afford me Sir: In my experience, most telemarketers (letters, 3, 8 February) are anxious to convince me that they are not selling anything but are “carrying out a survey”, or “just want to ask a few questions.”A response I have found effective is to say that, in that case, my time is valuable – commonly, £60 an hour, or £1 a minute – and to ask the caller to provide an address to which to send an invoice before continuing.

It is time the government recognised that such innovative taxation provides a means for them to meet their pledges on the environment and poverty alleviation. I suppose when they then get home they don’t have to beat up their spouses for a few hours.RICHARD KNIGHTLONDON W1 Blair’s failure to tax the airline industry Sir: I share Norman Baker’s disbelief at the Prime Minister dismissing calls for a tax on the airline industry (report, 8 February).Such a tax needn’t be “hefty” and “unrealistic” as the PM suggests, but could create a “double good” – both negating the worst environmental excesses of an industry founded on subsidised fuel, while raising substantial revenue to help combat global warming. What point are they making by swerving into her? What point are they making by pulling over, stopping her and screaming abuse? What point are they making by chasing her up the road trying to mount the pavement where she has escaped?If you want to see modern man at his finest get your smallest female writer to cycle around gently in rush hour and watch the abuse fly They do it because they can – with no fear of retribution. They all feel powerful in their cars and wish to frighten small women on bikes.

In the more affluent private areas where big foreign four-wheel drive vehicles sit on an austere block-paved frontage, sparrows are a rarity.Couple this devastating loss of habitat with the selfish mentality of the typical estate agent, who sees birds nesting in roofs as vermin to be eradicated, and is it any wonder this brave little bird which has endured its association with man for centuries is finding it hard to survive alongside us? If there are fewer places for them to nest, feed and find shelter, then of course it’s harder for sparrows to survive.DONALD E LYVENLONDON N5 Cyclists intimidated by bullies in cars Sir: Vince Yearley, writing about the “initiative” launched by Alistair Darling to improve van drivers’ skills (7 February), misses the point entirely.Both myself and my girlfriend cycle in London, and without me by her side she has suffered a string of vicious threats to her person by drivers (men, of course) of varying ages but one thing in common. The introduction of controlled parking zones has exacerbated the problem of front garden destruction.Incredibly, the flock of 37 sparrows I fed in a very cold but well-hedged park last week weren’t dying out, nor were the many successful broods that were born last year in the social housing areas of my borough (Barnet) where about half the residents have not (or can’t) carelessly remove their front gardens and hedges for car parking. Front-garden loss, especially the loss of the evergreen hedges that offered year-round shelter and safe foraging zones, is to blame for sparrow decline.Too many front gardens have been lost in our urbanised districts, as highlighted in two recent reports, one from the Greater London Authority, the other by the Royal Horticultural Society. Forbearance is an attitude that requires to be universally perceived.JOHN MERRETT BLOOMLOWESTOFT, SUFFOLK A tougher world for urban sparrows Sir: Your article “Revealed: why the sparrows are dying out” (6 February), blaming the lack of live food for their young, does not explain the obvious question: if there are fewer invertebrates available to feed young sparrows, then how come other garden birds that rely almost entirely on “live food” throughout the year are not in serious decline? There is a more pernicious reason for sparrow decline – habitat loss.Sparrows thrive where they have adequate cover. His ideal society would not uphold the freedom of speech that I believe in. In my ideal world people holding strong religious views would practise the tolerance they now expect from others .ELIZABETH M HUNTERELY, CAMBRIDGESHIRESir: Whilst accepting that Muslims believe the now famous Danish cartoon satirising the Prophet Mohamed to be a form of blasphemy, it is worth recalling that dissemination of the century-old imperial Russian forgery, known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in Arabic translation, is still available in several countries of the Middle East and causes great anguish to world Jewry, religious and secular alike. The BBC issued many warnings before screening the opera; I chose to watch it and Andreas Whittam Smith did not.

Due to the paucity of his imagination and having spent so much of his time working with what in America would be called “trailer trash” he was forced to people this fantasy reconciliation with the social misfits who appeared nightly on his shows.As the title indicates, and contrary to popular belief, the opera is about Jerry Springer not about Christianity and it deals with the issues and problems of reality TV. Jerry Springer: the Opera told the story of a man who believed in his dying moments that his powers of mediation were such that he could bring about a reconciliation between God and the Devil. It is a rich irony that it is that very same freedom of speech that facilitated the protesting people, who displayed placards with vile references to 7/7 or beheadings.JEFF CABLELEIGHTON BUZZARD BEDFORDSHIRESir: It ill becomes Andreas Whittam Smith to build an argument on the screening of Jerry Springer: the Opera without having seen it for himself (Opinion, 6 February). Did the Danish government, or Jyllands-Posten, actively seek to canvas the wider Muslim community? I reject the proposition that I, a non-Muslim, must abide by any Muslim beliefs through whatever coercive means can be employed.Our collective tendency, in the countries of the west, to respect freedom of speech is thrown in sharp relief when seen against the repressive background of middle eastern countries. That way it would be sure to achieve consensus within the Labour Party and would be helping to create an education system which genuinely provides opportunity for all.IAN BAUCKHAMHEADTEACHER, BENNETT MEMORIAL DIOCESAN SCHOOL, TUNBRIDGE WELLS VANESSA EVERETT HEADTEACHER, MASCALLS SCHOOL, PADDOCK WOOD ROSEMARY OLIVIER HEADTEACHER, ST GREGORY’S SCHOOL, TUNBRIDGE WELLS DEREK ADAM HEADTEACHER, HOMEWOOD SCHOOL, TENTERDEN CHRIS ATKIN HEADTEACHER, ST EDMUND’S SCHOOL, DOVER Islam has no right to coerce the rest of us Sir: Why does Islam require the non-Muslim citizens of a secular state (Denmark) to comply with its tenets? I don’t understand why this local offence has become global.