PEOPLE rave on about the selling of the QE2 to Dubai but fail to look at it in its right perspective.

Cunard, now an American-owned company, are the ones who are doing the selling so if we were to purchase this relic it would be like a small extension of lease-lend, which we have only just last year finished paying for from the Second World War.

We needed the old cast-off ships and weapons a little more than we do now so why lumber ourselves with an article, which we built in the first place and should be able to do so again?

I use the term 'should be able to' more in hope than in expectation seeing the state this country has allowed itself to fall into. Where shipbuilding is concerned we should be looking to the future rather than concentrating on a thing of the past.

If we have £50m, the estimated price of this 40-year-old hulk, to spare then surely we could afford something that would give Southampton a real wow factor.

Wake up Southampton councillors and put this city back on the map!

E E BOAL, Lordswood, Southampton.