We need enough MPs for the job

I AM indebted to Mr Tim Hunter for his letter (Yorkshire Post, October 27).

Given the data he provides for the State of California (and assuming similar representation in the rest of the USA, which I do not doubt), then it is clear that the UK has, pro-rata, upwards of twice as many elected representatives as the USA.

Whether this necessarily implies that the UK has too many MPs is another matter for, unlike the USA, the House must provide the government of the day with 100 or more ministers and others who are an essential part of the machinery of government.

In a reduced House, there would be fewer MPs capable of becoming even junior ministers, thus making the task of finding competent people more difficult. There are also the dual responsibilities of those MPs – to constituents and to the Government – to bear in mind.

Notwithstanding these matters, I accept Mr Hunter’s major point. I am suitably chastened!

Dean had to go

From: Beryl Williams, School Hill, Wakefield.

IT’S very sad indeed that the Dean of Westminster has resigned. It highlights the fact that the Church is under the thumb of the Establishment. For, faced with a choice between supporting the Establishment and enacting the teachings of Jesus, if he chooses the latter and persists in so doing, he has to go.

Ticket to ride

From: Sheila Stones, Gledhow Valley Road, Leeds.

ON the buses.

Mobile phones/inane conversations; eating and drinking; applying full make-up; brushing and combing hair; ear, nose and throat spraying; nappy changing; knitting.

Never a dull moment...