Half-ton Clem

SIR – I, as a Conservative, would like to lend my support to Robert Whittle’s suggestion (Letters, October 20) that our former Labour prime minister, Clement Attlee, should feature on the new £50 note.

First, he presided over the creation of the modern welfare state, accepted now by all parties, while remaining a British patriot. Margaret Thatcher, though of equal stature in our more recent history, would perhaps be too divisive.

Secondly, it would be refreshing if the Government, apparently obsessed with diversity, could make a decision based on merit rather than gender, race or religion.