How true that anyone working in a “McJob” for a time (Lady Hale pulled pints? She’s all the stronger for it, Journal, 27 September) gains an understanding of how the world works, of how people think, behave, and what is important to them, as well as learning the price of food in the supermarket. This knowledge and experience appears to be sadly lacking among some of our politicians.
Patricia Pipe
Saltash, Cornwall
• The “menial”, “poorly paid starter jobs” to which Fiona Sturges refers are often jobs that sustain many people throughout their entire lives. It is work which makes a valuable contribution in its own right, and these workers deserve respect and a living wage.
Valerie Ford
Bristol
• Why is it that as soon as I have picked the last (free) fig from our tree, publications – including your own – are full of fig recipes often requiring large quantities? At a minimum of 25p each, I wouldn’t consider trying them. Perhaps you could adjust your culinary calendar so that these recipes coincide with the fig crop, usually early to mid-September in most parts of the country.
Chris Jones
Bewdley, Worcestershire
• We used to see a photo of Theresa May outside her church every week; now we see a photo of Dominic Cummings outside 10 Downing Street every day.
Shirley Neish
Bookham, Surrey
• While I accept that supper is a bit twee, the meal in the evening is not tea (Letters, 28 September). If it is after 6pm, it is dinner. Tea is in the afternoon and supper is at bedtime.
Stuart Waterworth
Tavistock, Devon
• Posh or not, only northerners call it tea. South of Edgware it’s dinner.
Brian Simpson
London
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