Disastrous

IN his interview for the documentary series Thatcher - The Downing Street Years, Governor Chris Patten asserts that Margaret Thatcher - near the collapse of her Prime Ministership - was ''beginning to show signs of metal fatigue''. Perhaps he meant ''mettle fatigue''.

For an ''iron lady'', of course, either could be quite disastrous and indeed proved to be so.

DEREK HALL Tin Hau