THE fervency (and long windedness) of the anti-millennium brigade is quite amusing.

There never was 1AD or 19AD or 234AD or even 500AD. The day and year of Christ's birth has always been a matter of guesswork and every year we celebrate his birthday on a mythical and arbitrary date. (And will somebody answer the editor's question about which century 1900 belongs to?)

Any measuring system starts at zero. Rulers, odometers, kitchen scales and measuring jugs don't start at one. Perhaps this is why most people are completely indifferent to the whole debate and don't give a monkey's either way.

The change from 1999 to 2000 is numerically and symbolically momentous and worthy of extra special celebration (you like to watch your car's mileometer roll over from a number like this to the next, don't you?)

Millennium or not (who cares?), Happy New Year.

KEITH ELLEL, Westwood Avenue, Rishton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.