Is economics relevant as a profession (Letters, January 8)? Just been watching BBC2’s The Super-Rich and Us, to the accompaniment of texts from my daughter. After an exchange of texts despairing at the growth of inequality and the conclusion of the experts, including Thomas Piketty, that there is no such thing as the trickle-down effect, my daughter concludes: “How many economists does it take to change an economy?”
Sue Gollop
Bridlington
• Paul Mason (G2, 12 January) seems to believe that it was the French population who resisted and defeated the Nazis. Perhaps he should start reading books on history as well as economics.
Professor Alan Sked
London School of Economics
• Surely a much more vital role for HP sauce (Letters, 13 January) was in the introduction of the French language to us lower middle classes. Does anyone else remember the label on the bottle: “Cette sauce de haute qualité est une mélange…” etc? It proved of little use in France, sadly.
Frances Worsley
Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire
• In his discussion on the relative rarity of screen portraits of critics (Point of view, Review, 10 January), Anthony Quinn omits the brilliant portrait of Alexander Woollcott as Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942), or again as Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944).
Philip Clayton
London
• Polly Toynbee’s comments on our often irrational responses to threats (Opinion, 13 January) reminded me of the posters I saw in South Africa explaining that more people are killed by toasters than sharks.
Mathew Frith
London
• Now there seems to be a groundswell of opinion in favour of free speech, perhaps the heir to the throne could allow the BBC to screen Reinventing the Royals (BBC shelves show on Prince Charles’s former king of spin, 30 December).
Janet Guest
Woking, Surrey
