Who holds the REAL secret of true beauty?
by FIDDLING with the golden ratio and a picture of Johnny Depp’s estranged wife Amber Heard, Harley Street surgeon Dr Julian de Silva has pronounced her The Prettiest Girl In The World.
In doing so, he hasn’t taken into account umpteen other actresses, starting with Cote de Pablo.
Until recently, she made the US TV crime drama NCIS much more watchable — and her leaving caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth among fans.
Nor did he include the hauntingly beautiful young lady I saw on the Hampton-to-Richmond R70 bus the other day at 8.30am.
MARTIN BRADLEY, Hampton, Middx.
Outsmarting Corbyn
LAboUR MPs who oppose Jeremy Corbyn should make contingency plans in case the leadership election doesn’t go their way.
The tragedy for the party is that, for the best democratic reasons, Ed Miliband unwittingly opened up the party’s traditional constituency to a much broader range of political interests, consisting mainly of socialist sects, who entered the political debate like a virus.
The Trade Union & Socialist Coalition, the Socialist Workers Party, the Communist Party and other insignificant socialist groups have coalesced under Momentum, an umbrella organisation.
on their own, these sects engage in internecine politics and in a general election would gain only minimal support. For example, in 2015 in South and North Coventry, the TUSC could muster only 650 and 1,769 votes respectively.
In Poplar and Limehouse, it gained only 367 votes against the Labour MP who is supported by 29,886 — 58.5 per cent of the electorate. The TUSC candidate now wants that MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, deselected and replaced by an extreme hard-Left sectarian Momentum candidate.
If the pro-Corbyn virus is successful again, those Labour MPs who oppose it must stand firm by refusing to join Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.
Eventually, the Speaker will come to realise Corbyn is unable to lead his Parliamentary party and will invite Tom Watson, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, to be the official leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal opposition. Failing that, the union leaders supporting Corbyn will finally wake up and, along with the party’s National Executive, withdraw support from Corbyn, leaving him sitting on the one-legged milking stool known as Momentum.
KENNETH R. JARRETT, Birmingham.
Doomsday scenario
LEADERS of the EU are puzzled that britain doesn’t have a plan for brexit. That’s because the plan was to hold a referendum as promised, strike the fear of God into the electorate with prophecies of doom and gloom, everyone would vote to stay in, and it would be business as usual.
That’s what happens when you take people for granted.
B STEvEN, Glenrothes, Fife.
The VW factor
A bARGAINING ploy in our negotiations with the EU would be to tempt Mrs Merkel with an offer to delay slapping a big fine on Volkswagen (as the US is planning) in return for better access to EU markets without the difficult-tounderstand attachment of freedom of movement. The damage has been done and we can’t turn the clock back. Provided future imports are properly rated, it’s the most sensible course of action.
DAvID EDWARDS, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.
Political correctness
I WISH Nicola Sturgeon would grow up and accept that nobody is correct all the time. She should have the grace to admit there are occasions when she has been completely wrong.
The people of Scotland who voted to remain in the EU referendum voted for the United Kingdom to remain, not Scotland on its own. She cannot claim it is ‘the will of the Scottish people’ to stay in the EU. This is not a mandate to demand another referendum on independence.
A recent poll showed that more people in Scotland wish to renew Trident and maintain the base at Faslane than want to cancel it. Again no ‘will of the people’ for a referendum.
She should stop trying to fulfil her own pet desire for independence by fair means or foul. The ‘will of the people’ is that she tries to govern using the extensive powers she already has and rectify the many problems our country faces.
Name and address supplied.
Low visibility
AS the rail strike gathers pace and ever more commuters and travellers are inconvenienced, I have to ask the whereabouts of our Transport Minister, Humza yousaf. His silence has been deafening.
Any responsible, caring government would be highly visible in the representation of the affected population against vested interests, but this principle appears not to be appropriate in today’s Scotland.
In this case, a ‘working behind the scenes’ response is inadequate. Where are you, Mr yousaf?
GM LINDSAY, Kinross.
Service is key
FINANCIAL incentives aren’t proving enough to make customers switch bank accounts.
our UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), which looks at customer satisfaction across the UK, reveals a correlation between banks’ customer service and net gains and losses of accounts.
When mapping the most recent data from the Current Account Switch Service against the January 2016 UKCSI results, banks whose average customer satisfaction was higher than the sector average were more successful in gaining accounts — on average 20,000 new accounts.
banks with lower than average customer satisfaction suffered an average loss of more than 9,000 customer accounts over this time.
This suggests customer service is more significant than financial incentives in driving switching.
Amid the CMA drive to increase switching, those banks that deliver excellent customer service will reap the rewards by taking market share from their competitors.
The UKCSI highlights that investment in staff training and complaint handling are areas that could significantly improve the banks’ customer service performance and — therefore — their bottom line. JO CAUSON, Institute of Customer Service, London SW1.
A must-read on Iraq
IF PoRToN Down scientist Dr beverley Roberts (Letters) wants to know why Tony blair was so poorly advised about Iraq, I suggest she reads Dr brian Jones’s Failing Intelligence, published by biteback and available on Amazon.
Jones was formerly head of the UK Defence Intelligence Staff’s nuclear, biological and chemical section, ideally placed to pronounce on how britain was taken to war and how the intelligence reporting on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) was manipulated to justify Saddam Hussein’s removal.
I worked with brian in the mid-Seventies and remember well his attention to detail.
He used his knowledge and experience, leaked documents and the expert testimony given to inquiries (including Chilcot) to examine how and why Tony blair and George W. bush deceive their legislatures and their electorates into believing Iraqi WMD were a threat that could be used to attack the West within 45 minutes.
He describes how blair and bush tried to use the inquiries to cover up their culpability in the deception.
JUNE IRvINE, address supplied.