Bernie Evans bemoans the party’s centre-right policies and lack of radicalism to really inspire voters. Plus letters from Lyn Dade, Keith Flett, Jimmy McCluskey and Dr Mark Wilcox Keir Starmer’s party has not only, as Jonathan Freedland says, sought “to reassure Tory switchers” that they have nothing to worry about, in doing so it has remoulded itself...

Shyamol Banerji responds to an article by Mihir Bose on the country coming to terms with its colonial pastMihir Bose’s experiences in the UK resonate somewhat with my own (I came to Britain from India, fulfilled a dream, and I say this: we’re a great country, but a work in progress, 30 April). In 1966, as a 14-year-old, I arrived at Tilbury Docks on...

The scheme ignores the reality that those desperate enough to cross the Channel are willing to accept risks, write Jamie and Debbie HawkerGiven that only a small percentage of asylum seekers are likely to be deported to Rwanda (Home Office to detain asylum seekers across UK in shock Rwanda operation, 28 April), we might expect that those initially chosen...

Dental decay | Wedding dresses | Cleaning the Garrick Club | Duane Eddy | Blocked loo logbooksPenny Mordaunt chose an unfortunate metaphor in referring to the Big Bad Wolf’s dentures in her attack on Labour’s supposed duplicity on the NHS (Politics live, 2 May). If the wolf had been reliant on NHS dentistry under this government, Little Red Riding Hood...

I attended the same senior school as Marion Ecob-Prince. She and her brother were born in the same week as me, in the same nursing home and we were all involved in a baby mix-up.At feeding time my mother was presented with a handsome, lusty baby – who turned out to be Marion. Marion’s mother, Anne, was tending to her twin brother, so was unaware that...

Come to Thurrock, where the Tory council went bankrupt, services are depleted and costs are up. People feel victims of a terrible injusticeLate last Monday, I got home from a long day of political reporting to find a political leaflet produced by the Conservative party. It had nothing do with the local elections; where I live, the only contest was the...