One way I have been able to come to terms with my action is in thinking that, however barbaric closed adoption is for the birth mother, my daughter and her adoptive family were able, by my permanent exclusion from her life, to bond as a real family.I believe my daughter owes me nothing, and I am reconciled to the possibility that I might never get to see her again. I think Mr Dougall will find that EU slaughter directives (translated into UK statute) are enforced by the Meat Hygiene Service and not EHOs.I am an EHO and do not consider myself in anyway a fascist, nor have I met any colleagues with fascist-like traits. I do agree with his sentiments on the demise of many smaller abattoirs, unable to survive the vast increase in EU rulings on meat hygiene. Our farmed fish has been declared unsafe to eat.Forget WMD: if the terrorists wanted to kill us off, they need only block our imports for a week.JOYCE GLASSER London NW3 Meat hygiene Sir: Ian Dougall puts the demise of many abattoirs down to “Britain’s left-wing fascist environmental health officers” (letter, 17 April). And unfortunately the Governors, as guardians of the public interest, have in the past proved to be useless.ROBERT LAYTON BBC Music Talks producer, 1959-90 London NW6 Mechanised country Sir: Jill Deane of North Yorkshire conveys her disillusionment with the noisy mechanised countryside today (letter, 16 April). To be fair, as far as the visual arts are concerned, there are programmes of quality on BBC Four.

But opera and ballet, for which the public pays in its taxes, is scandalously under-represented by the BBC (also funded by the public), and great visiting orchestras and musicians are completely neglected. Given John Prescott’s obsession with concrete and tarmac, she will soon be out of her misery. The Deputy Prime Minister seems to think we should hand over the countryside to developers for hundreds of thousands of houses, industrial parks and hypermarkets.On one trip to that most British of institutions, Marks & Spencer’s, I noted that our apples come from Argentina and France, honey from Canada or New Zealand, tomatoes and spinach from Spain and disgusting-tasting chicken from Denmark. We are being cheated.I am afraid that those with memories of what Michael Grade did to music and the arts during his days at Channel 4 will have felt misgivings at the rejoicing expressed in your leader column (3 April), now that he is back as the new BBC chairman. Britain controlled Palestine under a League of Nations mandate Less than 100,000 Jews lived there. Nothing that Tony Blair could say in any referendum campaign will persuade them otherwise.The Prime Minister held out against a referendum because he feared that he would lose it He was right
More from Bruce Anderson.

In 1923 Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940), the major intellectual influence on Israel’s right-wing parties, wrote an article of unusual prescience At the time there was no state of Israel. Surely at least one of them is bound to reject the constitution, thus diminishing our embarrassment.Tony Blair would be horrified to learn how few of his senior colleagues share his own belief in his continuing powers of persuasion. They understand, even if he does not, that he has lost a great deal of moral authority in the country by his conduct over the Iraq war. In the Rose Garden of the White House, Mr Blair may be able to convince himself that he can still get across his message to the British people. There are not that many Labour MPs who agree – and the same will apply on Europe.Tony Blair has almost accepted that he would have to call a referendum on the EU constitution because the British people will insist that he does so He is right. But the voters are not only so obdurate because they believe that they should have the final say They also want to reject the constitution itself. Over the past couple of years, there has been a widespread loss of confidence in Tony Blair’s.

The days are gone when he could say, “Trust me, I know what’s good for you,” and hope to receive any response but mocking laughter.Some of his colleagues know this, even if Mr Blair does not. There are already signs of renewed enthusiasm for the long grass into which the European constitution seemed to have disappeared last December. Ministers are reassuring one another that a number of EU countries will be holding referendums. In any larger gathering, scepticism will kick in.Tony Blair will face a similar problem to the one William Hague encountered in 2001.