Given talk of labour shortages in the wake of Brexit – it’s clearly time to upgrade my driving licence

One of the significant differences between Leave and Remain, in my view, is that the latter can be magnanimous in acknowledging that Nissan’s decisions in Sunderland are not entirely what we might have expected, but are good news.

However, the suggestion that the army being brought in to ensure food supplies must rank as the most significant manifestation of the so-called "Project Fear" that we shall see.

We did tell you that there would be an exodus of labour, and this will surely be a process that will bring Brexit right into our daily lives. It is sobering to think that the Brexit-related shortages of labour in the hospitality and delivery industries are caused by hundreds of thousands of individual decisions not to remain in the UK, not the decisions of big business.

It is clearly time to upgrade my driving licence.

John Evans

Pulborough

Is Rob Merrick correct that pensioners getting wealthier is “a key story of this century”?

We have to agree that the “triple lock” has increased the level of the state pension, but let us not forget that the reason it was introduced was because British old-age pensions had fallen far behind over many decades. Furthermore, declaring increases in percentage terms doesn’t give a clear picture: a big percentage might equate with a small absolute rise if the starting point is a small number!

We could and should expect more facts, such as: how pensions relate to earnings through time in absolute terms; how UK pensions compare with those of our European neighbours; and how UK pensions compare with changing costs of living.

Were we given the full picture, and were Rob Merrick right that pensions are now over-generous, I’m sure that pensioners would understand the need for a different form of "lock".

Ian Reid

Kilnwick

Rob Merrick's rhetoric regarding pensioners benefitting not only from a “triple lock” promise but also a property boom has some gaping omissions and assumptions.

I was born in 1956, have worked and paid tax for over forty years and expected a full state pension as promised by our government, that I would be able to expect to retire on a full state pension at sixty, having paid in the full contribution for the required period.

Subsequent governments have reneged on the promise and have stated that those contributors will not be paid for a further six years. The sums are there, hundreds of thousands of pensioners have been denied pensions for six-plus years, the “greys” as Merrick refers to pensioners have already paid a hefty tax contribution.

I left the UK to live abroad, completely let down by the British government.

Louise Parnell

Italy

To add to the outrage in this piece about football fans – the football clubs have a lot to answer for. A few large fines are called for. The saving grace is that many more supporters may now have antibodies!

David Fleming

Stonehaven

The leaders of the retail companies are 100 per cent correct in calling for assaults on retail workers to made a specific criminal offence. As vendors the retail workers have many a law to apply as licensing and “Think 25”. Therefore the law needs to support those whose job it is to apply the law.

John Barstow

West Sussex