Alan Maynard proposes (Letters, 25 February) that the number of MPs be cut to just 300. But what does he think the people of this country have done to deserve such a drastic cut in representation? Why should citizens be forced to share MPs with over twice as many fellow-constituents as is currently the case?
Francis Prideaux
London
• We can only hope that Douglas Flint’s efforts to reform HSBC (Report, 26 February) are better than his attempt to cite Forth Bridge lore. It was the Forth rail bridge that used to require continuous painting not the road bridge. However, since it was dressed with long-life paint in 2011, it won’t require another coat until 2036, by which time HSBC may well still be paying for its various misdemeanours.
Robin Macpherson
Edinburgh
• Duane Michals (My best shot, G2, 26 February) gets Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle significantly wrong. It does not say that you cannot know the position or momentum of a particle with certainty, it says you cannot know the position and the momentum. You have a choice, one or the other. Hence the joke: A policeman stops Heisenberg on the motorway and says: “Do you know how fast you were going?” Heisenberg replies: “No. But I know where I am.”
Norman Moss
London
• Pete Bibby asks who elects (Church of England) bishops (Letters, 24 February). The chapter of their respective cathedral as part of their appointment process.
Alan Harrison
Walsall, West Midlands
• Perhaps after you have abolished brutal murder (Letters, 25 February) you might help us distinguish between innocent and guilty civilians.
Julian Futter
London
• Happy 64th, Steve Bell (Birthdays, 26 February) – but did you need to take a month off to celebrate? Missing you already.
Mark Wilcox
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire
