I don't know who Renata Salecl has been hanging about with (maybe it's all Lacanian theorists round her way) ("Decisions, decisions", 19 August), but if she'd care to visit us in Cardiff it would be no trouble at all to rustle up a meaningful sample of people whose lives are circumscribed by an extreme lack of choice rather than an excess. Probably not many would describe themselves as intellectuals though, and even fewer would turn down a government post because of an anticipated sadness at some future loss of power.
Tim Holmes Senior lecturer Cardiff School of Journalism, Cardiff University.