A trip from Brighton to London resembles a scene from a disaster film

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Frequent overcrowding on trains on the Southern Rail services is becoming a problem for passengers (Getty Images)

I would like to ask the Secretary of State for Transport just how long travellers from Brighton have to suffer anxiety and chaos caused by the situation with Southern Railway and its "reduced service on some routes due to train crew availability", which is not to be confused with industrial action, of course.

Taking the train from Brighton to London on a Sunday is reminiscent of trying to get the last helicopter out of Saigon as the Vietnam war came to a close. Sardines in a tin have a more orderly configuration than Southern's passengers on these trains, though I grant you the sardines are dead, which is what all the passengers would be if there was an accident on one of these dangerously overcrowded trains. People are sitting in the aisles, on the tables between seats and the lavatories are regularly used as makeshift private compartments, not that anything private is happening.

I send my 14-year-old son back to his school each Sunday on these trains and the hell that breaks loose as the departure indicator lights up with news of a London bound train that has a train crew that are actually fit for work is like a scene from a disaster movie, with people cramming themselves en masse onto the train so as to get a seat: the living nightmare misses only Bruce Willis rampaging down the platform to rescue the more vulnerable passengers.

So, dear Secretary of State, when do you intend to bang some heads together and resolve this issue?

Henry Page
Newhaven

We do not need to ‘take back control’

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I burst out laughing every time the likes of Johnson, Gove, Farrage and the rest of the Out campaign bang on and on about how they will "take back control". It’s as if that just by mentioning it often enough, it will become true, when in fact it is the most meaningless and misleading statement almost imaginable. We are not a ship or an aeroplane. We are a small island situated in Europe with a hugely complex series of relationships with other countries in Europe, and if we leave the EU, the true fact is we will have no control over the impact events in these other countries will definitely have on us if things fall apart.

Are they really that stupid to believe that if Europe fractures, the eurozone collapses, disorder and disharmony returns and the far right grows we’ll be all right, Jack, because we will have “taken back control"? The utter stupidity of such a belief is boggling. Of what will they take control? The world economy? European peace and harmony? Global trade? The EU may not be perfect, it has issues that need to be fixed, but the best way to fix those issues is to be at the heart of the EU where we can use our influence to take as much control of our destiny as is possible.

David Martin
Ilfracombe

Labour has lost the plot on immigration

There is still time for the Remain camp to distinguish between helpful and unhelpful immigration, and explain how they would clamp down on the latter. This is where Labour has lost the plot, and a lot of its traditional supporters.

Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell

Organisations should declare their interests

Many organisations have come out in favour of Britain remaining in the EU. Some receive funds from the EU. Should they not declare an interest?

William W. Scott
North Berwick

Why doesn’t James Dyson lobby the Home Office?

I hate to be the one to break it to James Dyson, but it’s not just EU countries that have different languages and electrical plugs.

Of course, he’s not obliged to export if it’s too much hassle for him, but I strongly suspect his millions didn’t come from nowhere.

And those difficulties he faces if he wants to employ someone from outside the EU? All of the UK Government’s making. So might I suggest that, rather than exhorting us to take a step that will leave us all less able to afford his excellent but overpriced vacuum cleaners, he lobby the Home Office to review their rules for non-EU migration instead?

Paula Kirby
Inverness

It is our duty to save the EU

The future of the European Union appears to be in jeopardy, assailed as it is by undemocratic forces from all sides. Is it not our historic mission to continue to help it survive and prosper – from the inside?

David Gist
Address supplied