SIR - I have watched in open-mouthed amazement as the furore surrounding Celebrity Big Brother has unfolded.

Sensible people are watching in deep embarrassment as senior Government ministers from two supposedly sophisticated, modern countries snipe at each other over a third-rate, unbelievably boring reality TV show.

For pity's sake! This is a show peopled by Z-list "celebrities", of limited intelligence, watched by people of limited intelligence. The participants in the show are there for no other reason than to make a name for themselves by being outrageous and controversial.

This zoo-like, childish voyeurism certainly does not warrant two countries falling out and effigies being burned.

If senior politicians and a whole country such as India have been sucked into this school-yard nonsense, then all I can say is that we have all completely lost the plot.

If there was any racism involved, and I don't believe there was, then those concerned would probably not have had the intelligence to realise what they were saying anyway.

Please! We are talking here of a person who thought the Scilly Isles were in the Mediterranean, involved in silly, schoolgirl name-calling, not someone making a major political statement.

Malcolm Wood. Westercroft View, Northowram