Only toffs can afford nannies (The right calls it the ‘nanny state’…, 23 September). So for the rest of us the jibe “nanny state” is irrelevant and should be barred. What we need are supportive parents, and many are insufficiently resourced to provide fully for their children. So we need the “maternal” – alias welfare – state rather than the current Thatcherite austerity ill-fare one.
Robert Gibbs
Glasgow
• Thank you, Aditya Chakrabortty (Britain wants spending and a better NHS, not this obsession with growth. That’s why there’s big trouble ahead, 26 September). I’m reminded of a brief letter to the Guardian early in the Thatcher era: “Just what is this Economy with a capital E whose wellbeing seems so divorced from that of the actual population?”
David Mayle
Newport, Essex
• At 84, I’ve accepted that it’s never going to be jam today in politics.
Roland White
Bognor Regis, West Sussex
• In the 1960s, our enlightened headmistress at Camden School for Girls allowed a group from a boys’ school to entertain us with an afternoon of Beatles and Rolling Stones numbers. One of our girls joined them to sing As Tears Go By – a moving performance by Cleo Sylvestre, not to be forgotten (Obituary, 22 September).
Elizabeth Monger
Plymouth
• Having taught for 35 years, I can fully sympathise with Peter Russell about class sizes (Letters, 24 September), although – most fortunately – I never had to put up with an elephant in the room.
Ken Gambles
Calcutt, North Yorkshire
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