George Osborne has dreamed up a new intelligence test for local councillors (National Sunday trading law to be relaxed, 7 July). Those who believe that a purchase made at 9am on a Sunday generates economic growth in a way that one made at 10am on a Sunday does not will clearly rush to support Sunday opening. What this is really all about is whether or not we are prepared to leave any scraps of trade at all for the hard-pressed small-shop sector. Since no one much bothers to record the volumes of trade (less still the valuable social functions) of small shops, “growth” will be found – measured by trade stolen from them – and their loss will, as ever, go unmeasured.
Alan Hallsworth
Professor emeritus, Portsmouth Business School
• Are you ageing fast or slow (Report, 8 July)? I’ll be better able to age slow when you write proper.
Angela Bogle
Bakewell, Derbyshire
• Katie Allen lists possible causes for the lack of UK productivity growth (Without us investing in change, we would have become the next supermarket site, 7 July). The fact that we compare unfavourably with other countries with similar resources might also be because of the attitude of some firms and politicians who regard the workforce not as assets to be nurtured but as prey to be exploited.
Marilyn Hall
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
• Thank you for the G2 feature on how as individuals we can help Greece (Sun, sea and solidarity, 8 July). Can we have something on the same lines for Tunisia, please?
John Brooke
Bewdley, Worcestershire
• Not only blackbirds learn to copy what they hear (Letters, 8 July). After the construction of a new building at our mixed school we realised that the starlings were continuing the wolf whistles they had learned from the building’s workmen.
Helen Keating
Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway
• Good to see A Gentleman writing about letting non-gentlemen into a gentlemen’s club. The Admirable Gentleman!
David Bradnack
Oxford
