Will a female chancellor be able to reverse the UK’s economic fortunes?

I read Rachel Reeves’s recent column for International Women’s Day with interest, and felt she made a plausible case for a female chancellor to oversee a necessary change in our economic fortunes.

I was pleased to read that she is flying the fiscal flag for women who, as she rightly states, are often at the bottom of the food chain and deserve far better. As a pragmatic woman too, she is under no illusions as to what the poisoned economic chalice will be if Labour does win the next election.

Being the first woman chancellor is indeed a heavyweight role and, with Reeves’s economic credentials, one she would be a perfect fit for. Hopefully, she can aspire to this position in the midst of this all-consuming government complacency.

So bring it on – and the sooner the better – before this country and its beleaguered public services sink completely.

Judith A Daniels

Address supplied

It was concerning to read in Alan Rusbridger’s recent article regarding the “epidemic” of fake news that “the News Literacy Trust has found that only 2 per cent of children have the skills they need to identify misinformation and that half of teachers believe that children are not equipped to identity fake news”.

However, it is far more concerning that this implies that the other half of our teachers (who should know better) believe that children are equipped to identify fake news, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Phil Whitney

Address supplied

I believe it was Richard Feynman who said anyone who claims to understand quantum theory doesn’t actually understand it. However, I feel the same can be said of economics, with its many and diverse adherents.

To give just one recent example, the Labour Party is concerned that the Tories have stolen its idea of taxing non-doms as if somehow this potential income has disappeared. Surely (to use another science analogy) there is an equivalent conservation principle at work here – the money, like energy, can’t disappear. It’s just somewhere else, or in a different form, and will be available to a future government as it is for the current one.

G Forward

Stirling

Hats off to The Independent for emphasising the fact that International Women’s Day is a cause for celebration and a call to action. It is an annual opportunity to pay homage to the tremendous achievements made by women – and to face up to some uncomfortable truths.

It is time to salute women who disproportionately shoulder the burden of environmental injustice, climate change, inequities, wars and armed conflicts. In war and climate-stricken places like Gaza, Libya and Ukraine, women and girls have shown unflinching strength, resilience and selfless spirits in the face of adversities. It is therefore a ripe time to recommit ourselves to advancing women’s rights not only here in the UK, but across the world too.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London