Vermin, mugwumps, and sushi shortages

A sushi dish. ‘Funny, one doesn’t hear about riots and sushi starvation despite “the country’s economic mess,”’ writes George Wilkinson. Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images

Neither Archie Bland (G2, 1 August) nor your letter writers (4 August) note that your paper sells T-shirts with the infamous Bevan quote about Tories and vermin. You have in your own small way contributed to the acceptance of crass abuse by your continued advertising and sale of that product.
David Stockley
Reigate, Surrey

• Some readers may welcome a definition of “mugwump” (Letters from David Bale., 4 August). Frank Muir and Dennis Norden provided a splendid one years ago on the radio show My Word: someone with their mug on one side of the fence and their wump on the other.
Philip Bryers
Scone, Perth

• Yet another article on the Japanese economic “malaise” (That sinking feeling’, 3 August). Funny, one doesn’t hear about riots and sushi starvation despite the “country’s economic mess for a quarter of a century”. My favourite manufacturer, Shimano, has risen to the top of the tree in cycle components over this period. The god of universal and eternal growth must be challenged.
George Wilkinson
Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire

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