Clearly, what is offensive to the average intellectual, politically correct broadsheet columnist is side-splittingly funny to thousands of people who are prepared to buy this brand of humour either in the form of live performances or in recorded material.People claim Bernard manning is sexist and racist, but in truth he attacks everyone - his act is that of a true misanthropist. If we are inclined not to take responsibility for our actions there is a whole host of things to blame Satan has no monopoly in the culprit market. We can blame upbringing, hormones, genes, stars, other people - the list is endless. The simplistic view that God is willing to prevent evil but not able or else able but not willing misses the point God gave his son Jesus laid down his life. God made himself vulnerable, the subject of evil, to show its bankruptcy up against him. Sir: Surely all music is "real music". Mr de Blancke (letter, 29 January) simply has a different (subjective) view of what he considers good music.

To suggest that the people who write this "meretricious modern garbage" should not be called composers smacks of the Nazi pogroms against "degenerate" art in the Thirties. I have never thought of the BBC as the great defender of "the revolution" but perhaps its continued support of the underfunded makes it a public body of which Marx would be proud. Maybe Mr de Blancke should look at his own understanding of that which he derides and decide whether it is not in fact he who is deficient.MARK CUNNINGHAMEdinburgh. Sir: In stating that the devil serves as something to get us off the hook of taking full responsibility for our actions Paul Vallely betrays a misunderstanding of the biblical perspective both on Satan and on the human mind ("Who the devil are you?", 28 January). But in reality this is everything that the English do not need. Since Shakespeare's time we have isolated ourselves from the beauties and terrors of myth and passion; we have covered the rawness of our nature in Prince of Wales check. Coward was right to indicate that an unrestrained peeling-back-to-nature was a mistake; but his denial of the mythic and ecstatic aspects to human existence reminds me of the king in Euripides' Bacchae, whose suppression of the rites of Dionysos drove him mad. Somehow we need to integrate the mythic and the irrational into our lives.

House inflation only benefits estate agents and landowners. Everyone else suffers - first time buyers and those needing to move up the housing chain all see their dream house going out of their reach. It is a prime cause of general inflation, which in turn brings higher interest rates, making mortgages dearer. But the most serious result, from my perspective as a local councillor grappling with how to accommodate vast numbers of new houses without destroying our beautiful countryside, is that inflation stokes up demand in a never- ending cycle, with everyone jumping on the bandwagon before the next rise, and we end up with an urban sprawl.DEREK FISHERGloucester. Sir: Philip Hoare's paean for the values of Noel Coward (Comment, 1 February) was summed up more than three decades ago in a top newspaper's thundering headline over an editorial on the Chatterley trial: A DECENT RETICENCE. I am sure you would not be writing in such terms about cars or food. CCTV might even allow us to pay a decent wage to those who are doing their job conscientiously.FRANCIS ELLIOT-WRIGHTLondon SE4.