While I do not like the idea of another form of taxation inflicted upon me, I cannot understand why any responsible person is against the idea of broadening our narrow tax base. Did Lord Patten not explicitly support high land prices to maintain government income, thereby ignoring the need to establish a proper financial infrastructure in Hong Kong and rendering our economy so fragile during the Asian financial crisis?

KENNETH TSANG, Central

Thank you, Lord Patten

I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to former governor Chris Patten. I was the first person in the queue at his book signing at Dymocks in Central on Sunday, but I was unable to express my gratitude to him then, with all the photographers around us.

I thank him from the bottom of my heart for his governance of Hong Kong and continuing concern for the social, economic and political development of the city. It is commendable that he has not hesitated to express his views during his visit on a goods and services tax and universal suffrage.

He is a friendly man with integrity, wisdom and a conscience, and there is no doubt that he truly loves this city.

I have a feeling that if he were still our governor, the development of the harbourfront and the preservation of local heritage would have been handled better. I do hope that he will come back and visit again soon.

MARCUS MA, Hong Kong Island

Recipe for border chaos

There are so many false assumptions and silly ideas in the consultation document on a goods and services tax that it could be surmised that they are there to ensure that the idea is aborted after the nine months are up.

One of the sillier ideas is the proposal that a GST be charged on 'goods worth more than $3,000 brought in by Hong Kong travellers' and 'imported cargo worth more than $4,000' ('How the tax affects you', July 19).

I may be misinformed, but I thought two of the strengths of Hong Kong's tax regime were its lack of import duties and ease of administration. Are we now expected to think of employing thousands of extra customs officers to check all incoming passengers' baggage and freight carriers' manifests? Has the financial secretary's team also worked out how big customs facilities will need to be to accommodate the millions of Hong Kong residents waiting for their baggage to be checked, even on a random basis?

If a GST is imposed on goods bought in Shenzhen, and the government also goes ahead with its proposal to levy a departure tax at the land border, it would be a double whammy bound to hurt Hong Kong's less affluent residents.

Hong Kong shoppers are painfully aware that they already pay high, hidden costs to cover retailers' exorbitant rentals. This probably accounts for more than a 5 per cent increase in prices. If the financial secretary really wants to broaden the tax base, he should consider effective measures to tax landlords, property developers and speculators.

BARRY GIRLING, Tung Chung

Bring back the safari suit

In his opinion piece 'Ties that bind us to stuffy traditions' (July 21), Michael Chugani questions British sartorial elegance.

Having served as a Desert Rat in the Eighth Army in the second world war, and having become accustomed to the freedom of British tropical dress, I was delighted on joining the colonial service in 1954 to find that we 'went into whites' in Hong Kong on May 1 and did not change back into winter clothing until November 1.

All members of the disciplined services wore shorts in summer, and most of us British civil servants wore shorts with short-sleeved, open-necked shirts (tucked in) and knee socks - all in white.

And then, surreptitiously, icy-cold air-conditioning arrived in the 1960s and 1970s, sadly putting an end to wearing shorts at work.

With the need to conserve energy during the oil crisis in the mid-1970s, then governor Murray MacLehose encouraged us to wear safari suits. Of course, leading from the front as he always did, Lord MacLehose wore a safari suit himself.

Some people would not want to wear shorts today, especially if they do not have shapely legs. But perhaps it is time to consider wearing safari suits once again, as we did 30 years ago. If well-tailored, they can combine comfort with elegance. What do you say?

DAN WATERS, Mid-Levels

Bagging revenue

Sarah Liao Sau-tung's plan to introduce a green tax on plastic bags confirms yet again her inadequacy for the job of secretary for the environment, transport and works ('Plastic bags first to get green tax: Sarah Liao', July 21). She lacks the talent and foresight required to successfully manage one of these areas of responsibility, let alone all three.

In a money-grabbing exercise, the well-intentioned but naive Green Student Council's No Plastic Bag days have now led to a misplaced, regressive tax on Hong Kong consumers. The introduction of a green tax on the basis of a few days of publicity stunts is astounding.

Ireland is trumpeted as a successful example of a place that saw a fall in plastic bag use after a similar tax was introduced in 2002, but the decrease lasted barely six months. Sales of plastic bags have been on the rise ever since. Last year, sales were up 250 per cent compared with when the tax was introduced, leading an Irish politician to comment that plastic bags might be intrinsic to supermarket shopping.

The financial secretary can take a break from the goods and services tax. Dr Liao's beaten him to it. If government estimates that Hong Kong consumes about 33 million plastic bags a day are correct and a levy of

50 cents is charged on each bag, that's $16.5 million a day, every day, into the tax coffers.

Plastic bags make up only 6 per cent of Hong Kong's landfills. With all this attention detracting from ways to reduce the other 94 per cent, it just confirms that this is a revenue-leaching exercise.

SHANE SPURWAY, Kennedy Town

Friend of the people

I do not know your correspondent who unkindly wrote the letter 'One woman's history' (July 21) to discredit me. I was not anti-government (being awarded a CBE in 1978 for my work against corruption) but I was, and still am, anti-colonial.

I am still democratic in mind and action, but I oppose capitalist colonialism, which now unashamedly flaunts itself as democracy while invading other countries and forcing its style of government on them.

As for Szeto Wah, if I could have afforded a court case, I could have accused him of abominable election tactics, of which I still have ample proof.

The people ( I prefer to call them people rather than 'the masses', as your correspondent does, because I am one of them) still treat me as a friend and refer problems to me.

The difference is that I think and live democratically. Some leading politicians use the word 'democracy' but do little for the people who vote for them once they are in power.

ELSIE TU, Kwun Tong

In defence of a patriot

Letter writer Barry Girling's canine tearing at Elsie Tu is uncalled for ('One woman's history', July 21). If ever there was a lady who deserves to be called 'the conscience of Hong Kong' it is Mrs Tu, who has fought tooth and nail all her life for the socially underprivileged and politically oppressed. She is also more deserving of the title 'Chinese patriot' ('Patten praises Anson Chan as a 'great Chinese patriot'', July 22), despite being the former Elsie Elliot.

I have no doubt that the so-called democratic government which - in Mr Girling's words - 'Beijing will eventually be obliged to give Hong Kong' will be one that Mrs Tu approves of, in line with her unchanged principles.

PETER LOK, Heng Fa Chuen