This is to set an initial consumption amount per year which would be taxed at a low

This is to set an initial consumption amount per year which would be taxed at a low rate of VAT (say, zero), for each domestic customer account. All energy consumed above this amount would be taxed at a higher rate (say, the standard rate of 17.5 per cent).CH OSMANAberdeen. Millennial myth Sir: M C Patrick (Letters, 7 March) states that "under the Computer Millennium Problem up to 90 per cent of computers will be unable to move ... to 1 January 2000, and will become useless". This is an urban myth. Virtually all computer systems are perfectly capable of dealing with dates in the next century; the problem is only with certain quite old (mainly pre-Eighties) software, most of which will be fixed well before 2000. Those making most noise are the contractors who are offering to fix these software problems, and certain elements of the mass media.BEN HUTCHINGSOxford.

Motorway speed Sir: Motorists' failure to observe advisory speed limits is often blamed for motorway pile-ups in fog ("It looks like the road to Basra", 11 March). Drivers would probably take more notice of the signs if there were not so often a failure to revise or cancel the advised limit as soon as driving conditions change. All too often the warning lights are found to be crying wolf. FRANCIS ROADSLondon E18. Moon `fakers' missed a trick Sir: If the pictures of the first lunar landing are indeed wholly or partly faked (Letters, 7 March), then one small question arises. How come no one bothered to fake any pictures of Neil Armstrong? It has been a cause of irritation in the British Interplanetary Society and other like-minded bodies that no photographs exist of the first man on the Moon. He took plenty of shots of Buzz Aldrin, but by a strange oversight it appears that Aldrin never took any of him.

Our only pictorial record of Armstrong on the lunar surface is a small and distorted reflection on the face-plate of Aldrin's helmet.It is the sort of thing that happens sometimes in real-life situations; but don't try to convince me that any fraudster could be that stupid.MICHAEL STONEPeterborough. Liverpool needs to face reality Sir: As long as journalists allow Liverpudlians to enjoy and promote their cosy self-image of brave loser and victim, nothing in this city will ever change, nor will anyone want it to ("Hidden virtues of loser- friendly Liverpool", 11 March). Yes, community is here, but parochial and rigidly defined by class, religion and background, and heaven help anyone who is neither Catholic nor working class.Liverpudlians can choose tostay in their early-20th-century persona or come into the nearly-21st century and face the harsh realities of modern life. They should not expect to do both, nor should they be encouraged in this by outsiders.EVELYN ROSSLiverpool. Pesky mink Sir: R Burfoot writes about the ethics of mink farming (letter, 10 March).