After the last scandal, you’d think MPs would come clean on browsing habits

I see in your pages that parliament is blocking the disclosure of MPs’ and their staff’s internet porn browsing history on grounds of “national security”. After the recent issues regarding dishonesty, disreputable gatherings and generally dishonourable behaviour over the last several months, one would have thought that by now it would be in everybody’s best interests for them just to come clean.

After all, these supposed representatives of the people would presumably have us believe that they were merely guilty of having made innocent slips, but this defensiveness is more what might be expected of hardened criminals.

Julian Self

Milton Keynes

I feel it speaks volumes that parliament has blocked – wrongly in my opinion – the freedom of information request from The Independent on MPs and other sundry personnel visiting porn sites while at the Palace of Westminster on national security grounds.

As a consequence, I suggest John Rentoul does a Top10 internet pornographic sites watched by our MPs or staff when at their place of work. One understandably would allow anonymous nominations for this revelatory article. You never know, there might be an unintended benefit for our representatives: MPs stuck in a rut with just one site may be able to spread their metaphorical wings without directly consulting a colleague.

Robert Boston

Kent

In letters yesterday, there was one extolling the benefits of removing the monarch and replacing the head of state with an elected president.

The USA did that a few centuries ago and has managed to elect a majority of rogues and dishonest people to be their head of state. We could end up with our own Trump! Be careful what you wish for.

Michael Pate

Preston

Sanctions have been imposed on Russian oil and gas exports because of its invasion of Ukraine. This has created a shortage, which has resulted in a significant rise in price. As a consequence, Russia now earns far more from exporting much less while the countries enforcing the sanction suffer shortages and soaring prices.

Counterintuitively, if sanctions were removed and Russian oil and gas flowed freely into the global market, wouldn’t that produce an immediate price drop? Russia’s income would be then reduced and the cost to importers would fall. It could even encourage Russia to remove the blockade which prevents Ukraine from exporting its grain, as they have demanded.

Or have I missed something?

Richard Charnley

North Yorkshire

The spike in inflation is driven in part by rising energy costs. Urgent action is also needed to reduce and end reliance on fossil fuels.

Electricity from solar is viable but where to put the solar panels? Displacing farmland with solar panels is like growing crops as biofuel feedstock. It undermines the purpose of agriculture which must be to grow food. Current food price inflation can only be exacerbated by using agricultural land for solar farms. Perhaps if the solar panels were mounted a few metres above ground level the land could be shared with grazing livestock.

Roof-mounted solar panels are a much better option and the UK and the world have an abundance of roof space that could be utilised. Roofs at commercial and industrial premises have great potential as sites of renewable electricity production, with the power either used by the industry at the premises or fed into the grid to ease energy cost inflation for consumers. But this requires a big effort that I believe can only be achieved through a state agency.

Michael B Heath

Address supplied

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The cut-off for eligibility for free school meals is £7,400, which equates to about one-third of the wage of someone in full-time employment on the minimum wage.

Which out-of-touch or uncaring civil servant thinks that anyone above that threshold is not poor and deserving of all the help we can give? Maybe I or they don’t really understand the meaning of minimum.

G Forward

Stirling