Given that all industries are far more defensive about racial inequality than they are about sex or age, it would be extremely naive to take Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sharon D Clarke’s seeming nonchalance about racial issues in the acting industry at face value. Clarke’s code is a fine illustration: “As actors, we are trying to get work... We need people to give us gigs” = There are few enough roles available to black performers and I don’t want to scupper my chances with the powers that be by getting tagged as a troublemaker.
Stockwell Santley
London W4
Polling consistently shows public opinion to be well to the left of the neoliberal “centre-ground” on virtually every major policy issue except immigration. It is ignored by the media because it raises the questions: in whose interests are we governed? And whither British democracy?
abe_herzog On theguardian.com
It is truly painful for the siblings of the missing. My wife is one such sibling, and she lives with an open wound. It will not close, even 40 years on.
cynic9 On theguardian.com
My brother disappeared for 19 years. After 16-17 years, we got a note to say he was alive but did not want to be in touch with us. Finally he agreed to meet me on condition I did not let the rest of my family know. We cried and cried, and hugged endlessly, but it was a one-way street, with him wanting to know everything about us but telling nothing of himself. He eventually agreed to a family reunion, but they found it very hard to forgive him the pain he’d caused. Sometimes, there is no happy ending.
Lantana On theguardian.com
Having worked with “survivors” of Lariam, I would never use it. Problems with this drug have been known for a long time, with people repatriated after becoming psychotic a long way from home. I know that statistically many take it with no apparent side-effects, but psychosis is a risk too far.
Diana Parkinson On theguardian.com
The woman in the 11 April Blind Date says that “Everything felt staged.” Are you going to tell her, or should I?
David Carter
Douglas, Isle of Man
A “no carb” day seems unnecessary at the best of times (the human gut is perfectly designed to digest carbs), but on a blind date at a classic French bistro with someone else picking up the tab? That way madness lies.
Sue Baic
Bristol
What a joy it was to see myself in the That’s Me In The Picture at an Adam and the Ants’ gig. People look and judge, saying, “He must’ve been on drugs”. Well, I wasn’t – it was the adrenaline.
Lloyd Wolfson
By email
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