TUBBIE, or not Tubbie - that is the question.

Asking parents to buy those blobby Teletubbies, who are being given as much exposure as the silicone attributes of Pamela Anderson and Melinda Messenger combined, is sheer exploitation.

Particularly when you realise that it would take two weeks of the slave labour salary earned by the foreign workers who make them to purchase just one of these hideous toy monsters.

Looking in their stockings and pillow cases for Tinky Linky, Laa Laa, Po and Dipsy, children are far more likely to find Lord Lucan, because clever marketing techniques have ensured that these dolls are harder to obtain than FA Cup Final tickets.

Last year Buzz Lightyear was harder to find than Ronald Biggs. The Christmas before, the Power Rangers were more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel, and the year before that Tracy Island sank without trace.

So, manufacturers, let's have more "give" to the workers and the children and less "take" at Christmas.

EVAN WILLIAMS, Carr Meadow, Clayton-le-Woods.

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