MIKE Wolfe is entirely correct in his summary of the quite complicated and potentially tragic situation facing the Wedgwood Museum, pictured. It is beyond belief that lawyers will end up receiving thousands of pounds in fees to prove that the collection, which was started by Josiah in the 1790s, is in a permanent endowment or "express Trust" .

We can assure Mike that more campaigning is planned and we urge him and fellow Potters to join the growing list of supporters at www.SaveWedgwood.org and write to those ministers suggested on the web site.

We have put easy copy and paste letters on the site.

Sadly, it seems that regardless of our protestations; the debate at Westminster lead by Tristram Hunt MP; the Lords debate lead by the Earl of Clancarty; the lobbying done by Wedgwood and Darwin and many other descendants of designers (such as Victor Skellern's son); and workers connected to Wedgwood worldwide; there seems to be no political will to stop the thundering, rapacious legal juggernaut.

The legal costs are already thousands of pounds and escalating. The case could go either way: common sense and public policy be dammed.

If the judge rules that the 250 year old collection, donated by generations of workers and Wedgwood descendants is not in a permanent endowment, it will have to be sold to pay the PPF, a government quango that collects over £600 million each year in levies from big corporations to pay pensioners when their employers can't. Regardless of how amazing an asset the collection is, how it demonstrates pride in our social, cultural and manufacturing history, our role in the enlightenment as the innovative, creative heart of the industrial revolution; the fact that it was Potteries money – and love – which sent Charles Darwin on arguably the most important sailing trip ever made by man – none of this matters.

The financial wizards, the grey suits, and barristers may be allowed to wrest it from us and the nation. We are all seemingly helpless in the face of this intractable legal process.

One of our supporters from Alabama, USA summed it up aptly:- "To an overseas outsider this is an all too familiar English tragedy in the preparation – selling off the national heritage to no logical purpose other than to satisfy labyrinthine legislative technicalities. If this wonderful collection comes under the hammer, not one piece will remain in the UK.

"Private collectors out here are oiling the hinges of their bank vaults in delighted anticipation." Precisely.

TOM and ALISON WEDGWOOD

Stoke-on-Trent