If you want to liven things up at a dinner party do what I have been doing since November and casually ask: 'Did you know that title deeds have been abolished?' Watch the look of shock and horror on the faces of the other guests when you tell them that next time they move or remortgage they are going to cease to have any paper document of title.

The conversion of evidence of title to a purely electronic basis is one that was introduced without the knowledge or approval of the general public and is one that I believe would not conceivably ever have got such approval.

People who own an asset worth several hundred thousands of pounds want a document of title for that asset - and a print-off of an electronic Land Registry record is not sufficient.

This is just yet another example of the mad headlong rush towards a paperless world that wrongly assumes that computerisation is the only solution to every question.

I am by no means opposed to computers and indeed appreciate the many benefits they have, but there are certain things that are too important to be left just to an electronic register.

JS Brown, Ray Nixon Brown, Leighton Buzzard