Instead of new bank holidays for each of the nations of the UK to coincide with saints’ days (as proposed by Labour), why not make national elections a public holiday as in many other countries? This would help to make it as easy for many people in employment to vote, as it is for people who are retired or not in work. Alternatively, voting should take place at weekends, thereby avoiding disruption to schools. Improving turnout and making the voting process just as convenient for everyone would be a step towards a healthier democracy.
Chris Rennard
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• I hope the article on how the prime minister came to her decision to call an election while walking above Dolgellau (Report, 22 April) isn’t an indication of the treatment Wales can expect from the political parties and the media during this campaign and the subsequent parliament: it was written by your North of England correspondent.
Gruffydd Thomas
Bielefeld, Germany
• So, “Rise of robots puts one-third of UK jobs at risk, warns thinktank” (15 April). At what point in this progress towards robots taking over everyone’s job and leaving them without employment or, more crucially, income is someone going to notice that demand is falling off so precipitously for the goods and services that the robots have been producing (because not enough people can afford them any more) that the robots themselves are becoming redundant? And what then?
Dr Derek Rowntree
Banbury, Oxfordshire
• I write regarding the Jacobite toast mentioned in Claire Stares’ Country Diary (14 April). In her wonderful book A Country Scrapbook, Lilias Rider Haggard wrote: “In 1702 [William III’s] sorrel pony stumbled over a molehill and threw him when riding at Hampton Court … and there he died, thus giving the Jacobites their famous toast ‘To the Little Gentleman in Black Velvet.’” Since a sorrel pony is chestnut, the Jacobites must be toasting the mole (Letters, 21 April).
Steve Moore
Leumeah, New South Wales, Australia
• Jogging along the tracks in a cemetery is one thing, but please do not encourage hide-and-seek among the gravestones (Notes and queries, 20 April). In 2000 a young boy was killed by a falling stone when playing in a Harrogate cemetery. This led to safety checks by the council throughout the borough and the subsequent lowering of thousands of memorials.
Dr Joanna Moody
Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire
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