Mensch quitting is a setback

From: Alan Carcas, Cornmill Lane, Liversedge.

IN her precipitate retirement from serving as an MP, Louise Mensch has set back the cause of high-flying women in politics, by at least 40 years, particularly in the Conservative Party.

What she has actually done 
is give a new lease of life to 
those old women, of both sexes, who sit in the front of constituency selection committees and ask killer questions like: “Does your husband support you in wanting to be an MP?” or “How will your family cope with you away from home, in Parliament?”

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Questions like this have, in the past, killed many a promising career in politics. An intelligent woman like Louise Mensch should have sorted this one out long before she got to the selection committee stage.

Short-sighted

From: Hilary Andrews, Wentworth Court, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I FEEL I must rebut Jennifer Bookbinder’s assertion that my suggestion that the NHS prescribe gym membership for the treatment of medical conditions (Yorkshire Post, July 30) is “fatally flawed”.

Such a plan along with the possible prescription being given to those committing alcohol-related crime (Yorkshire Post, July 27) would, of course, need to be evaluated by a controlled comparative trial, as are all treatments.

To condemn it out of hand is somewhat short-sighted and, dare I say it, old-fashioned.

Old terms

From: Bryn Niesyty, Newfield Crescent, Normanton.

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I SPENT the first 10 years of my life in the Batley and Dewsbury area and remember friends. I also remember at this time of year the fish shops selling “chats”.

These were small new potatoes cut in half or fried whole. They were 6d per bag. In the Batley area, Palm Sunday was always called Toffee Sunday.

When we were collecting wood for the fire on Guy Fawkes night, we called it chumping but when I moved to Keighley I found it was called progging.