It might well be that politics would run a bit better if politicians thrust into the Whitehall limelight had previous experience of running something (Editorial, 21 May). New Labour might well have understood better how to actually change things if Tony Blair had run a city administration beforehand, for example. EP Thompson, in his essay Homage to Tom Maguire, made the point that the labour movement in the later 19th century was built precisely not in London trade union HQs but in those “shadowy parts” known as the provinces where leaders had to prove themselves in practice to win support and power.
Keith Flett
London
• Martin Rowson’s apposite cartoon satirising the campaigns of both sides in the EU debate (23 May) reminds me of the slogan used by the yes campaign to win in 1975: “Jobs for the boys”, accompanied by a photo of nice young males. I know of no evidence that membership of the EU provides much work for young people and have since wondered whether this campaign was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the rich pickings for politicians at Brussels and Strasbourg?
Michael Bath
Rochester
• Perhaps it’s the million extra women in employment since 2009 who have “taken our jobs”, not the migrants after all (Employment rises to new high as women wait for retirement, 19 May). What will happen when both men and women can’t retire till 67, I wonder?
Louise Lewis
London
• So the chancellor thinks a fall in house prices is bad news (House prices face 18% hit if Britain quits EU – Osborne, 21 May)? Watch out, George, you risk alienating the very group most likely to vote remain!
Sheila Hutchins
Tregony, Cornwall
• Annual NHS deficit = £2.4bn (Report, 21 May). Annual cost of useless Trident weapons of mass destruction = £2.4bn. Solution = somewhat obvious.
Philip Gilligan
Littleborough, Greater Manchester
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