Reform’s high bar

Sir: Michael Gove’s concerns about Reform lacking the talent and an adequate policy framework to ‘prove their credentials for government’ should probably reflect on Starmer’s Labour party in opposition (‘Can Reform reform?, 19 September). Vagueness, bland generality and virtue signalling was all that was offered at the same stage. Reform’s proposals are a model of specificity, realism and genuine conviction in comparison.

We should not be overcritical of differences within the Reform leadership. Previous governments have accommodated Foot and Healey; Clarke and Tebbit; Benn and Jenkins, et al. Debate on policy and principles should be seen as healthy, and Kruger and Yusuf are entitled to disagree.

It sometimes appears as though Reform is subjected to higher expectations and sterner criticism than the established parties. We have probably suffered from an excess of consensus which made it difficult to discern real differences between Tories, Lib Dems and Labour. Party conferences used to be interesting, now they are boring.

Ian Mycroft

Leamington Spa, Warks

Root them out

Sir: Tim Shipman’s sources from the Labour party and the intelligence services (‘Bibi’s break’, 19 September) describe some of the younger staff in the Foreign Office and MI6 respectively as ‘campaigners’ and ‘impassioned’. Crown employees are supposed to be politically neutral and to provide impartial advice to the democratically elected government for whom they work. ‘Campaigners’ and the ‘impassioned’ have no place as public servants and should be rooted out as speedily as possible when the security of the realm is at stake.

David Soskin

Former special adviser to the Prime Minister, No. 10 Policy Unit, London SW1

Oil be back

Sir: Michael Simmons’s article on North Sea oil (‘Just start oil’, 12 September) mentioned that Britain is no longer able to refine oil, and would need to export it from Rosebank and then re-import it. According to my research, we still have at least four oil refineries, Fowley in Hampshire (ExxonMobil), Humber in Lincolnshire (Phillips66), Pembroke in Wales (Valero) and Stanlow in Cheshire (Essar), with capacity for over 950,000 barrels per day.

Keith Appleyard

West Wickham

What ales thee

Sir: Charles Moore refers to some details on beer prices and labourer wages included within the Hastings Embroidery (Notes, 19 September). I did a quick calculation based on today’s prices and wages. It might interest readers to know that a pint on the way home after a hard day’s slog is now twice as expensive relative to wages. Sad times.

Tony Barcroft

Chester

Whim-woms

Sir: My late mother, born and bred in Bermondsey, would have been thrilled to read Dot Wordsworth’s recent explanation of a whim-wham as ‘trifling ornament’ (Mind your language, 5 September). The festive decorations of my childhood Christmases featured a concertina-like, bell-shaped paper object which my mother called a ‘whim-wom’. The family always wondered from where this name came and now we know. My mother was somewhat of an expert in language obscurities that may well have derived from the London docks. Her most used, for which we have no histories, were: kickers (birds); scopitts (kippers); and spullicks (potatoes). Perhaps Dot can advise?

Geoff Cunnington

Harpenden, Herts

Accuracy is everything

Sir: I have always enthusiastically applauded Toby Young’s success with the West London Free School, and emphatically believe that we should cheer each other on in raising educational standards across the board for our young people, whatever the institution (‘I’ve found the perfect school for Harry and Meghan’, 19 September).

A journalist of his calibre should know, however, that accuracy is everything. GCSE results were published on 20 August, so for him to refer back to results achieved in 2025 does a disservice to the pupils and teachers at St Edward’s, who this year achieved outstanding results. St Edward’s 2026 GCSE results saw 73 per cent of pupils achieve Grades 9 to 7 – a full eight percentage points higher than last year’s 65 per cent, the figure which Toby Young chose to quote.

David Flower

Warden-Elect, St Edward’s, Oxford

Bible bashing

Sir: Why does anyone beyond the most fervent believer need to be biblically literate (‘Closed book’, 12 September)? The Bible, much like any other religious book or text, is nothing but a bunch of contradictory nonsense. It is read by those who want to believe it. When there is so much other great literature out there, from Dickens to Bryson, Gladwell to Hastings, why bother? You do not need to be able to quote the Bible to be a ‘capable British undergraduate’. As for giving it ‘pride of place in religious studies classes’: I shudder at the thought. Another example of how religion, to quote Christopher Hitchens, poisons everything.

David Wood

Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

Squashed bug

Sir: It’s unfortunate that you’ve resurrected the myth that the so-called millennium bug was ‘empty hysteria’ (‘Intelligence squared’, 19 September). Wholly untrue: it was a real problem. Were it not for the mind-numbing work of thousands of mainly junior IT staff, it could have caused mayhem when 20th-century dates had to interact with 21st-century ones. The lesson is that a major problem can be avoided if it’s foreseen and acted upon urgently enough. But is that happening with the emerging problem of ‘unchecked’ superhuman AI development? It seems it may not: people working at the coalface are telling us that to avoid disaster, this development must stop – whereas the heads of the main US AI companies are calling only for regulation.

Robin Guenier

Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Distant memories

Sir: Keith Johnson’s Notes on dogs barking in the distance (19 September) reminded me of what, to my mind, is the even more evocative recollection of distant sounds in Edward Thomas’s poem ‘Adlestrop’: ‘The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.’

Duncan A.J. McKechnie

Manmead, Somerset

Normans and Saxons

Sir: Regarding the names Norman and Saxon (Notes, 9 September), my husband’s name was Saxon (born 1911 and died 2009) and he had an elder brother Norman. He only knew one other Saxon; a Saxon Tate of the Tate and Lyle sugar company that he did business with. My husband was Saxon Jones of Samuel Jones and co., the well-known ‘Butterfly brand’ of Camberwell.

Sheila Jones

Wigan, Greater Manchester