Where is May’s magic money tree when she needs it?

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

This week we have heard many stories that highlight the chronic underfunding of public services (PA)

We have arrived at the end of a week with scant good news anywhere. I thought then it would be opportune to mention that the huge cost of dealing with Carillion is now joined by the vital overhaul of the prison system, which will not come cheap. Next I think in need of funds, readers would agree, is the NHS, and to follow: the train network, education, police, social care, Houses of Parliament, and I am sure there is something else.

Oh yes, leaving the EU – but of course we have been assured that this will be the easiest thing since signing the Magna Carta! Why on earth should anyone worry?

Robert Boston
Kingshill

A success for local debate

A few months ago I wrote a letter suggesting the need for people to contact the local, rather than the national, press about exiting Brexit. After all, what is the point of preaching to the converted in a paper that is clearly, in the main, anti-Brexit? A kind reader wrote back in support of my view.

Since then I am delighted to say my own local paper has proved to be very helpful by publishing letters both for and against Brexit. There has been quite a debate. If we are going to have any hope of persuading people that it is possible to change their minds on how they voted in the referendum, then this is surely the way forward.

I am wondering whether any of your readers have had similar success?

Rachel Greenwood
Bewdley

​The deeper meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry

The Norman French invaded, conquered, settled and ruled England, transforming the very fabric of its society as they imposed a stratified, class-based structure on the Anglo-Saxons. Scotland, the only country in the UK never to have been conquered, remained more democratic in outlook.

The splendid Bayeux Tapestry provides a graphic description of the Norman Conquest. 1066 was one in the eye for Harold, today it’s one in the eye for May.

Is Macron’s friendly gesture with its subliminal message too subtle for the hapless PM and her team?

James Stevenson
Auchterarder

The Nasty Party has regenerated

Gavin Williamson. Ben Bradley. Toby Young. The Nasty Party is well and truly back and getting younger! I have a simple idea how the Conservative Party can increase its membership among young people. It could simply absorb The EDL and National Front into its youth movement.

Not only does this provide a solution to their membership problems, but also provides a source of future ministers, MPs and government whips!

Nigel Groom
Witham

In the absence of talent, the Government is working with what it’s got

I gather that Conservative backbencher Adam Holloway reckoned that the recent Cabinet reshuffle was demeaning because “the British people want… a government made up of the best people to do the job of governing”. That’s fair – I think one would be hard pressed to find anybody who might disagree with that.

Holloway then went on to suggest that a leader ought to be able to choose members for their “skills, capabilities and character” rather than how they look. Truth be told, I’m quite certain that the British public would wish for a government that represents who they are, the values that they hold – in all their diversity – and the very best interests of the country, both for current and future generations.

Alas, Theresa May is hardly holding all the cards in any of those fields, as her current administration not-very-ably demonstrates, so in these straitened times she has had no choice but to make do and muddle along with what she’s got, just like the rest of us.

Julian Self
Milton Keynes

Boris Bridge

I wonder if Boris will suggest we all use Boris Bikes to cross this new bridge he is planning from Britain to France, and shall we all wear berets and have onions strung around our necks!?

Judi Martin
Aberdeenshire