RSGOLD-RUNESCAPEGOLD

Labour's repetitive and passionate rhetoric of newness discourages any looking back, certainly to old Labour history. Yet if there are ghosts in Downing Street, surely the shadow of a youngish man in shirt-sleeves, podgily dapper and full of energy, is hovering there now. The first hectic month of the new government has been heartening and invigorating We have known nothing quite like it before Except that we have. Will we soon find ourselves talking about your distinguished newspaper's having asserted its independency? Professor DAVID HEAD Department of Modern LanguagesUniversity of Northumbria at Newcastle.

Newness and energy Daily surprises Political chic, and a bit of political cheek as well. Sir: The headline "Blair vows to end culture of dependency" (2 June) is a striking example of the onward march of a word which, having noticed that its imperial shelf life (dependency: a colony without self- government) was coming to an end, has adopted in an almost Darwinian way to usurp the previously dominant position occupied by "dependence". should target high-risk groups, especially male homosexuals, purely on cost grounds".That's why we will carry on "haunting" the gay scene, ensuring that gay men receive practical advice and information on preventing HIV transmission.CHRIS MARKHAMDirector, RS HealthLondon W1. The cost of condom distribution to gay men (who make up the majority of new HIV infections) is far overshadowed by condom distribution to people whose risk of HIV is minimal through, say, family planning services or GP clinics. An NHS-commissioned report (in March 1997) concludes: "Provision of condoms. He suggests that handing out condoms is "a waste of money" - not so.

Sir: John Lyttle writes: "Rubberstuffers still haunt Hampstead Heath handing out condoms" (article, 30 May); in fact Rubberstuffers have never given out a single condom on the Heath. What Rubberstuffers provides is appropriate condoms in places where gay men are most likely to access them, namely gay venues. Sharp-eyed children (and others) soon start retrieving and redeeming containers discarded by their more careless or selfish peers.The Labour administration should emulate the Dutch model.MIKE STEELELondon SE4. Whenever a truck makes a delivery to a shop, it takes away the returned empty packaging.A welcome spin-off is a reduction in street litter. Nearly all such containers (glass and plastic bottles, as well as cans) attract this tariff. The "deposit" on a bottle of beer, for instance, is often twice the value of the contents, thus encouraging people to return any empty containers they come across. These "empties" are passed on up the supply chain by retailers, through wholesalers, either back to the original manufacturer for reuse, or for recycling.