Please don’t acknowledge “the vast and diverse area” of the York and North Yorkshire mayoral region and then make assumptions about “Tory-supporting villages”, as your report in the print edition does (Mayoral races: Tories hold Tees Valley but Labour breaks new ground, 4 May). Diversity extends to its rural villages too. I live in a small village on the North York Moors, where daily newspapers are delivered to the local pub. They may not be a completely reliable proxy for voting behaviour, but the most widely ordered newspapers are the Guardian/Observer, followed by the Yorkshire Post; not a Telegraph in sight. In the run-up to the recent elections, we received not just hand-delivered Conservative party leaflets, but Labour ones too. Rural villages are far from homogeneous.
Sylvia Bernard
Appleton-le-Moors, North Yorkshire
• Those who advise Keir Starmer on strategy should move on from telling him to exercise caution at all times to advising him that “boldness and determination will deliver victory”. And Rishi Sunak’s advisers should tell him that he should cut and run as things can only get worse.
Les Bright
Exeter
