<i>IoS</i> letters, emails & online postings (18 April 2010)

Mike Timms writes that "rightminded people, who would eschew duplicity in any other aspect of their lives... should withhold their votes until it [the voting system] is changed. Principled abstention is not apathy" ("Our One of the Above campaign gets your vote, 11 April). But principled or not, it will be impossible to differentiate his objection to first-past-the-post from apathy. Dr Tim Williamson would also like a form of PR. Labour has said it will have a referendum on electoral reform, while the Tories have rejected the idea. The best hope for both correspondents resides in a hung parliament, with Labour the largest party. To achieve this, where your preferred candidate has no chance of success, vote tactically for Labour. It may be a long time before such an opportunity arises again for smaller parties to exert pressure.

Eddie Dougall

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Of more concern than the voting age is the number of ridiculously inexperienced people standing for Parliament ("Yes, the voting age should be changed – to 25", 11 April). Our Labour and Conservative candidates are 30. We need a higher qualification age for MPs, to ensure that as many as possible have work and life experience outside politics, and for us to select those who wish to serve, rather than simply build a parliamentary career. Age 35 would be good; 40 even better.

cecile10

posted online

Some 16-year-olds are lucky enough to have a job, and so pay their taxes. They should be allowed to vote.

humberestuary

posted online

Your double-page spread on an NHS whistleblower, surgeon Ramon Niekrash ("NHS targets and secrecy are hurting patients, doctor warns", 11 April), and the experience of journalist Heather Brooke, as related the week before to Matthew Bell, illustrate the same problem – getting faceless bureaucrats to act on information. We would all benefit from making those backroom administrators accountable. Similarly, it was very difficult to get anyone to accept responsibility in the recent spate of child abuse cases. As Ms Brooke said, it should be our right to know who is responsible for every area of work carried out by public servants. This in itself would guarantee much more efficient working. The political party that promised such action would get my vote.

Richard Mayhew

Saxmundham, Suffolk

Jon Moulton's article "Debt, a conspiracy of silence" (11 April) shows that this country has been living beyond its means for at least 10 years and maybe longer. The illusory wealth created during the property boom raised expectations and standards of living that cannot be sustained, given our level of economic activity.

He shows that, if anything, the structural weakness in the British economy is worse than in the 1970s, when we still had the North Sea Oil bonanza to bail us out, and most goods including cars, trains, white goods, electronics, industrial machinery and basic commodities were made in this country, so we were a lot more self-sufficient.

My view is that the pound is still overvalued on the currency market and is likely to go lower if the debt continues to rise. This will lead to lower standards of living, but may eventually reverse the trade imbalance in our economy. It is the pincer movement between higher interest rates and lower exchange rates that will ultimately drive the future of the British economy.

Hugh Walker

Dunfermline, Fife

To cut the deficit, William Hague talks of raising the retirement age to 66 from 2016 – 10 years earlier than planned. But it will be six years before this saving materialises and will affect the lowest paid in society disproportionately, compared with those in the public sector. Once again, it is the poorest in society who will have to work an extra year to pay additional taxes so that the public-sector workers can relax and enjoy their retirement.

David Fitt

Yate, Bristol

Rembrandt portrayed himself as the Greek painter Zeuxis, who died laughing at the foolishness of a woman who wanted to have herself painted as Aphrodite (Details competition, The New Review, 11 April). But rather than an "image of gaping senility", is this not Rembrandt laughing at the vanity of his own sitters? Why Zeuxis? Because he was a brilliantly clever painter, himself fooled by a painting done by a rival. Rembrandt is celebrating his fame, perhaps, while having a sly dig at his own immodesty.

Terry Walsh

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

While tera does indeed mean both the number 13 and "yours" in Punjabi, it is mistaken to assert that it is special or lucky in Sikhism (Flip chart, The New Review, 11 April). Sikhs are not superstitious, and for Sikhs, hell and heaven, as suggested in the images, do not exist.

Kartar Uppal

West Bromwich, West Midlands

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Letters to the Editor, Independent on Sunday, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5HF; email: sundayletters@independent.co.uk (with address; no attachments, please); fax: 020 7005 2627; online: independent.co.uk/dayinapage/2010/April/18