Sir: I read with great interest your two articles Skaters get stricter safety code after

Sir: I read with great interest your two articles ("Skaters get stricter safety code after park death" and "Rollerblading into the future", 11 July) about rollerblading. I would gladly have attended my granddaughter's graduation in April last had it not been in Australia!Let us never dispose of such ceremonies. They are there for ordinary people, grannies and all, especially since the day is fast approaching when a university education will only be for the well-off, and Oxford and Cambridge for the super-rich.Yours faithfully,Stella HolmesBenson,Wallingford9 July. Thirty years ago, I was at my eldest son's ceremony at Oxford. It was fortunately in lovely weather, like a huge garden party, and what if there was a photographic firm cashing in on the occasion? I had looked forward to this ceremony for months and would not have missed it for anything. Sir: As one of those grannies who was invited to her 40-year- old daughter's graduation ceremony yesterday, let me say a few words in praise of them ("Here's the diploma, now buy the video", 8 July).

Along with my daughter, who at 40 had gained her degree under nearly insuperable difficulties, were her husband and her daughter and me. About 300 graduates of all ages and several nationalities were there - all happily collecting their gowns and mortarboards, greeting friends and loving it all, as were their guests. Our last major pay strike was in 1952 and, since then, we have had only one other major dispute, over rostering and the 40-hour week in 1982.I would ask the public - to whom I apologise for the inconvenience they will have to face - to understand that this dispute is not of our making, and to ponder the case that I have outlined.The writer is general secretary of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef).. He/she works an average of 9.2 extra hours every week, turning the basic 39-hour week into a slog of 48.2 hours. Yet the basic weekly rate remains pounds 215 (or pounds 222 after the 3 per cent rise is applied) - and that is the basis on which the driver can look forward to retirement, because only the basic rate counts as pensionable pay.Aslef does not want to go on strike We are not a militant union or a bunch of hotheads.

We do not dispute the figure, but we do dispute the situation where drivers have to rely on extra allowances and other such payments to earn a decent living wage.A train driver is a highly skilled professional who takes 18 months to two years to train (an investment, incidentally, of some pounds 50,000 to pounds 70,000); he/she is then in charge of the lives of up to 1,000 passengers, handling a 2,000 ton train which can take over half a mile to stop in an emergency.He/she does not have the benefit of modern safety aides that are available to his/her counterparts on the European railways. So there should be no great breach of Government policy in giving the drivers more than 3 per cent.We have been upfront throughout the negotiations, saying that we wanted a "substantial" percentage increase on the current basic rate of pounds 215 a week; BR has sought to cloud the issue by saying the average earnings of train drivers are about pounds 21,500 a year (pounds 415 a week). For the fifth time since 1980 British Rail is seeking to force a "wage cut" on train drivers by offering a below-inflation pay increase. This is despite a 7.2 per cent increase in drivers' productivity over the past year. As suggested by European Union leaders at Cannes last month, the Rapid Reaction Force could help Sarajevo to avoid capitulation by securing a humanitarian aid route from the Adriatic coast to the capital.Even this third option carries risks, notably in the shape of more wanton Bosnian Serb attacks on civilians and UN forces But there are no risk- free choices left in Bosnia.. This would be centred on Sarajevo, to whose survival Western governments and Russia could pledge their support, but would also include Tuzla and Bihac. However, these arguments look less persuasive in light of the fact that fighting has intensified since last April, Western countries are already involved, and conditions in, say, Srebrenica could scarcely be worse for Muslims than they are now.The third and most sensible option, at least at this point, is to accept that the three Muslim enclaves of eastern Bosnia have never been militarily defendable, and that it would be better for the UN to retreat to a stronger, if smaller area of government-held Bosnia.

European governments have always opposed this strategy, on the grounds that it will lead to more intense fighting in Bosnia and Croatia, may cause the war to spread into the southern Balkans, may drag in Western countries, and is likely to make the conditions facing Bosnia's Muslims even harsher. It would also seem strange to fight for a tiny pocket of Muslim territory that, when a territorial settlement is finally reached, would either be awarded to the Bosnian Serbs or be permanently vulnerable to their pressure. The second option is the route preferred by Bob Dole, the Senate Republican leader and 1996 presidential candidate. He advocates pulling the UN out of Bosnia, and plans to introduce legislation next week to lift the arms embargo on the Bosnian government. The West's possible courses of action are narrowing into three choices as a result of Srebrenica's collapse and the approach of the Bosnian autumn and winter.