The reason there is little evidence that companies are competing harder to find workers from a shrinking labour pool (Purring about pay, 19 February) is that, with the potential for unlimited immigration from the EU, the labour pool is effectively infinite. Unlike in previous recoveries, the law of supply and demand dictates that wages are unlikely to increase significantly if at all. It is easy to see why immigration is of concern to a large section of society and why, without action to address earnings at the lower end of the scale, the UK is likely to leave the EU in the next few years.
Richard Wooller
Bream, Gloucestershire
• It is high time to abolish the phrase “women and children” as a group when reporting (Collision between ferry and trawler kills dozens, 23 February). It would be absurd to read of an accident where “more than half” were “men and children”. To lump women with children is outdated, lazy and disrespectful – and you wouldn’t do it to men.
Sue Lewis
Alpington, Norfolk
• I saw a reference to Alan Rusbridger in one of your rival papers’ weekend comments on the Telegraph contretemps as “mild-mannered”. I wondered where I’d read it before in relation to a journalist. Then the penny dropped: the spectacles; the hairstyle – it was Clark Kent! Do you have a public phone-booth outside your offices?
Bern Geelan
Bolton
• Re the Victory being “9.5in too wide” to get out of the dock (Report, 23 February), I doubt it. Maybe 9½in, however.
Tony Fisher
Gotham, Nottinghamshire
• Burma (Letters, 23 February)? Revised acronym: Misunderstanding; You Are Not My Angel Really.
Fr Alec Mitchell
Manchester
• Each placename pun you publish is just a corny pastiche.
Karl Sabbagh
Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire
