• IT’S a bit of a cliché, I know, but has the world gone mad?

Or at least has the management committee of the Hampstead Community Centre gone mad insisting that their life drawing class models put on clothes or move to an evening time slot? (Life drawing models told to cover up, February 6).

Their impulse to safeguard the young at the centre is sound enough, but their policy of not permitting naked human beings to be in the same premises as children is going to make our future civilisation impossible.

If the class were conducted in the same room as the centre’s children’s playgroup, maybe they might (just might) have a point. As it is I understand the class was taking place quite apart from the playgroup.

In any case in the 21st century (and even before) I suspect that most of humanity – including children – are broadly used to the sight of naked human bodies.

Our advertising industry constantly exploits them for commercial purposes. And in my limited experience of life drawing, its vibe is far removed from often sexualised images we see on advertising hoardings.

So automatically perceiving the bodies that we all possess as some sort of danger? They’ll be covering up piano legs next!

B ROBERTS, WC1