A SHORT while ago one of your correspondents suggested that everyone appears to be planning millennium celebrations one year too early. Though being perhaps a little pedantic, he was, of course, correct.

However, it is, no doubt, felt that the Year 2000 can be looked upon as a 'run-up' year to the time when the new millennium will start on January 1, 2001.

Why though, do we have the media now seeking to mislead us into thinking that there are only 99 years in a century? Newspapers and television news broadcasts have, in recent days, described this year's Remembrance Sunday and the state opening of Parliament as "the last this century"?

They, of course, are not. The last ones of the century will be those that take place next year.

Why does the media persist in perpetrating this error? Perhaps your Editor can enlighten us?

I am sure that anyone owed £100 would not be satisfied with £99 being offered in full settlement!

ERNEST ALLEN, Vancouver

Crescent, Blackburn.

FOOTNOTE: I do not wish to prolong the controversy, but can I pose another question? Is the year 1900 regarded as being in this century or the last? - Editor.

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