In the same way that claiming that the moon is made of green cheese does not make one a physicist of an unusual sort, so Holocaust deniers can be as sober or as drunk as they like, but they will never be historians (History is not just for sober academics, 24 February). Historians debate how and why past events happened and how we should understand their meaning in the present. They too can do this either sober or drunk, but what they do not do in either condition is waste time claiming that events for which there is overwhelming evidence did not occur.
Dan Stone
Professor of modern history, Royal Holloway, University of London
• At my all-girls grammar school in the 1960s, one girl was brave enough to admit that her ambition was to be a secretary (Letters, 23 February). Our headmistress, a Girton girl, would only countenance her applying to Mrs Hoster’s, as Prince Philip always selected his staff from there. A few years later she was at a desk in Harold Wilson’s office. I never found out whether the head regarded this as success or failure but she certainly wouldn’t have been there without touch typing.
Caroline Cole
Huddersfield
• As much as it is fashionable to imply otherwise, secretaries of state and MPs often work as many hours as junior doctors. Hence, like doctors, politicians also become liable to dangerous lapses in judgment through tiredness. Surely there is no better example than Jeremy Hunt’s proposals to make doctors more tired (Junior doctors declare fresh wave of strikes, 24 February).
James Bell
Aberdour, Fife
• Michael Wilshaw calls on “local politicians, be they mayors, council leaders, or cabinet members, to stand up and be counted, to shoulder responsibility for local schools” (Report, 24 February). Given that the government has stripped local government of most of its role in education, how does he propose they do this?
Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords
• The French do not think they invented the croissant (Letters, 24 February). The clue is in the language: they call Danish pastries “viennoiseries”. They do, however, believe they have perfected it!
Maidi Brown
Shenfield, Essex
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