SO QE2 has been sold to Dubai. So what', why should we want to exhibit an article that depicts the last gasp of British shipbuilding as a wow factor for our city of Southampton?

What we should be doing is working on a combined effort to put our country back on the map, not moping over a 40-year-old rusting hulk that would cost us something over 50m.

Ex-sailor George Carpenter (Letters, June 26) may have a few sentiments over the fact it was used in the Falklands War but Cunard, now an American owned company, is selling it, not us.

G Reynolds also sheds a tear over the sale, where does he think Southampton council is likely to lay its hands on a spare 50m? Get real.

L A O'BEE, Lordswood, Southampton