Geoffrey Wheatcroft (Letters, 15 September) rightly comments that Lord Haw-Haw became a wartime figure of fun: no doubt others of my advanced age may remember tuning in occasionally with their parents to his evening broadcasts, for a laugh. He sometimes used information picked up from the British media, despite its censorship. For me his finest hour came the night after the press had reported that there had been an air raid in which bombs had dropped at random. He duly informed us that “Random has been bombed”.
Eugene Byrne
London
• When the Labour party leadership election opened Jeremy Corbyn was a 100-1 rank outsider with the bookmakers. Now I note that the average odds being offered on him becoming the next prime minister are 8-1. Given that bookmakers are rarely wrong, the message they are now sending out is that he is 12.5 times more likely to become prime minister than he was leader of the Labour party. Get your money on quick.
John Holroyd
Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway
• Frank Field MP has said that Jeremy Corbyn will lead Labour down a “political cul de sac”. He must be referring to Downing Street. Thanks, Frank!
Stephen Webster
London
• I agree that conservatism is an age-related disease (Letters, 12 September). Can there be a more depressing phrase than “young Conservative”?
Linnette Ralph
London
• A South (not from the Valleys) Walian myself, when I taught in Hartlepool I discovered that Manchester is in the Midlands and Sheffield is in the south (Stuck in the Midlands with you: Guardian geography, 14 September).
Megan Smith
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
• David Bowie asked for a council house in 1954 (Letters, 15 September)? He would have been six or seven at the time.
John Shirley
London
