Letter: Dome truths

Sir: I am old enough to remember being taken around the 1951 Festival of Britain on my father's shoulders. There was a real sense of being shown the best of science, engineering and industrial design. As a national celebration, it was unifying and inspirational.

By contrast, there is a strong impression of the Millennium Dome having been foisted on us by a self-regarding clique of media people, politicians and corporate executives.

What should be a celebration of a civilisation whose roots lie in ancient Greece and Rome, and whose future lies beyond mobile phones and Internet shopping, seems to have no core, no values and no substance.

The contents of the Dome have been in effect franchised to the sponsors of the various zones and the state contribution has been paid for by robbing the various charities, sports and arts organisations to whom the hundreds of millions of pounds of Lottery money would otherwise have gone.

PETER CHIVALL

Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire