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SIR – The idea that voting for Reform UK could result in the party replacing the Conservatives in the longer term (Letters, April 29) is a fantasy. The electoral arithmetic simply doesn’t work that way, and the suggestion that we should regard a decade of Labour government as a price worth paying is glib. Labour’s cultural and social agenda is diametrically opposed to the worldview of those drawn to Reform. I would advise anyone considering supporting this party to read Hilaire Belloc’s poem Jim

SIR – Thames Water (Comment, April 1) has been rebuked by Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, for asking to increase water bills by 40 per cent. Yet it has already increased my water bill by 75 per cent since February, regardless of the fact that the countryside is now saturated (there is never any real shortage of water in this area) and even though there has been no reduction in the discharge of sewage into rivers. It needs to be allowed to go bust. C M Chadwick Lechlade, Gloucestershire

SIR – How is it possible that a family solely dependent on benefits can be better off than someone earning £70,000 a year – more than twice the average wage? This is an absurd situation, and it is driving those who pay the most tax to despair. The benefits system should be a safety net for those who fall on hard times or are unable to work through no fault of their own. It should help prevent poverty and destitution. It should not provide for a better lifestyle than that of someone who works and

The lawsuit is the fourth alleging abuse by former city officers, but a lawyer for the defendant says the allegations were investigated and dismissed many years ago.

SIR – Nicola Sturgeon will do anything and throw anybody under the bus in her destructive focus on independence (“Sturgeon’s Indyref2 strategy in disarray”, report, November 24).