It is disappointing to read your suggestion that a Miliband government should steer clear of amending the statutory basis of clinical commissioning groups (Editorial, 28 January). These bodies are crying out for reform. They were sold by the coalition as a means of deepening the democratic input in local healthcare decisions, but they lack transparency and allow little meaningful input by the citizenry. Theoretically GPs are now in the driving seat, but how many of them have a clue about how decisions are being taken in their name.
Dr Anthony Carew
Stockport
• No need to panic buy pine nuts (Black market going nuts as blight leaves pesto fans pining for more, 3 February). Use walnuts for making pesto, it tastes just as good.
Jill Bennett
St Albans
• David Blunkett wants all parents of second children who want child benefit to take parenting classes (Report, 4 February). Casting my mind back to the arrival of my second child, I would gladly have taken a parenting course if it would have enabled me to find time in my crowded life to go to a parenting course, and I didn’t even have a full-time job. Has he ever tried breastfeeding a baby while quelling the tantrums of a toddler prevented from importing the entire garden into the kitchen?
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife
• Tom Bryson (Letters, 30 January) challenges us to think of an environmental problem that is not caused by new technology. How about smog? Sewage? Water shortages? Victorian London was blighted by horse dung. Given the chariot burials of 2000BC, how “new” does he believe that technology to be?
Adrian Perry
Sheffield
• BBC director general Tony Hall’s criticism of The Archers (Report, 27 January) certainly took effect quickly. On Tuesday we were treated to the return of both Joe and Bert.
Michael Wheller
Portland, Dorset
