Cameron in Focus

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I enjoyed the profile of David Cameron [Sept. 22]. I share the outlook of the article that, barring an economic miracle, his party will win the next British general election. The Conservative Party of Margaret Thatcher and John Major was torn apart by infighting, much like the Labour government is today. Families across many classes are feeling the credit crunch, and people will not tolerate the self-centered government of Gordon Brown while people suffer huge increases in the cost of living. The government of Major lost because of infighting. History is repeating itself. David Cameron could be what Britain needs, a confident and natural Prime Minister in the style of Tony Blair, but without the endless spin and arrogance that defined Blair's tenure as Prime Minister.
Jonathan Chapman, FORKHILL, NORTHERN IRELAND

What an informative and entertaining writer Catherine Mayer is! Apart from enjoying her article on Cameron, I now have a much clearer insight into the person most likely to take the helm as Britain's next Prime Minister.
Bob Buckley, GAUTENG, SOUTH AFRICA

Mayer omits to draw attention to the facts: first, that the United Kingdom is effectively governed by the European Union in that about 70% of the laws now enacted by our Parliament are required to comply with the European Union's directives; and, secondly, that our subordination to the European Union will be complete when the provisions of the Lisbon treaty are brought progressively into effect in the next few years. The Conservatives have consistently furthered the interests of the European Union in complete disregard of the interests of our own country. Mr. Cameron conforms to that Conservative policy. Even as Prime Minister, he will have no real power and will only be able to tinker with 
 peripheral matters and, like his immediate predecessors, will spend much of his time posing on the international stage.
Stanley Booton, SOMERSET, ENGLAND

What a shame that under your photograph of "green Londoner" Cameron commuting on his bike you forgot to tell us that a limousine follows him to carry papers he "cannot put in his pannier." Some "green Londoner," eh?
Dennis O'Grady, SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND

Good Story, Bad Taste
I was impressed by Richard Lacayo's article on Britain's Damien Hirst and his $100 million Sotheby's auction [Sept. 15]. He is a great artist. TIME has, over the years, built itself a reputation of good story-writing and my family has been reading it for the past 20 years. I, a 13-year-old, have seen a flaw that has been bothering me for quite a while: the use of vulgar language (or evidence thereof). When I read TIME, I do not expect to read nonsense, and if I wish to read something with swear words, I would have done so. Can't you take the liberty of editing your own stories?
Dominic Daula, EAST LONDON, SOUTH AFRICA

The Coen Brothers Burn It Up!
Richard Corliss apparently does not have the same sense of humor my friends and I have [Sept. 22]. In the theater where I saw Burn After Reading, everyone laughed throughout. The Coen brothers are very smart about people who do stupid things. The scene in which the detective tries to speed away but has parked between two cars and cannot get out is right out of a Road Runner cartoon. Wile E. Coyote is alive and well!
Judith Canaan, KALAMAZOO, MICH., U.S.

Wasilla to the White House
The headline of Kinsley's essay "Alaskanomics" [Sept. 22] enticed me to read on, expecting a cogent article which would give me an insight into the current brouhaha surrounding Sarah Palin's entry into the White House race. However, by the final sentence I was wondering where you had dug up this misogynist ranter who also believes that all Alaskans are leeches and not "real Americans." I am going to guess that he is journalist who lives, or has lived, in Washington. Sarah has really got to those ol' boys. You go, girl!
B. J. O'Byrne, MEATH, IRELAND

Kinsley's essay left me wondering why a woman, with a history of doing her very best for the people who elected her at both local and state levels, would be suspected of becoming partisan once elected to national office? It seems to me that Alaskan Governor Palin would be just the person to help do for America what she has done for Alaska and Wasilla: increase revenues, decrease spending, tax windfalls and ensure greater dividends are returned to her present constituents. So what if she has found only 2% of Alaska's budget to be pork? No one else was looking. In Palin, America just may have a Vice President who knows how to exploit the national government's bureaucracy and lawmakers in favour of her constituents, and such a change, it seems to me, would be about time.
Peter Nortje, CAPE TOWN