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Humble or bumble?

This article is more than 14 years old

Anyone notice the different outcomes for being in charge of a multinational company when 11 workers are killed and substantial damage is done to the environment and the livelihoods of whole communities (Gone, but keeping his pension, 26 July), and the head of a local authority children's service where a child dies (The real Baby P effect, Comment, 7 July)?

Gerry McCarthy

Ipswich

Thank goodness BP isn't part of the public sector. Tony Hayward might have ended up with a gold-plated pension.

Simon Cleverley

Manchester

The importance of Crossrail to London and the whole UK economy is measurable and substantial (Letters, 27 July). More than 60% of Crossrail's £15.9bn funding already comes from Londoners and London businesses through direct contributions from the City of London, BAA and Canary Wharf Group, and from a business rates supplement and planning development levy – these sources would be lost for good if the project was stopped or curtailed.

Peter Hendy

Commissioner, Transport for London

There was a census boycott long before 1991 (Letters, 27 July). In 1911 women fighting for the vote mounted a campaign under the slogan "Women don't count – don't count women". Elizabeth Crawford and Jill Liddington's research will be published in History Workshop 71, spring 2011, to mark the centenary of that protest.

Anne Summers

London

You report UK-produced mange tout on sale for the first time this week (Report, 26 July). We have been selling our mange tout in shops in Ledbury for a month – and we are awaiting our second crop. Our mange tout is also available on the menu of the renowned Butchers Arms at Eldersfield.

Jane & Alex Morton

Vine Farm, Staunton, Gloucestershire

When and why did we change from humblebee – the name that Darwin used – to the rather more prosaic bumblebee (Country diary, 26 July)?

Angus Doulton

Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire

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