The swing from Labour may have been greater in Bermondsey than in Bradford West, but an important distinction needs to be drawn between the two byelections (He made us feel important, G2, 5 April). In 1983 Simon Hughes won against a backdrop of press and media demonisation of the Labour candidate, Peter Tatchell. In 2012 it was the demonised candidate who won.
Martyn Bedford
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
• Not only do Christians read the Guardian (Letters, 3 April), but they also do things Guardian writers approve of. Polly Toynbee wrote of low-paid working families flocking to the Trussell Trust's food banks. The trust's value statement says: "We are a Christian organisation motivated by Jesus's teaching on poverty and injustice. We believe in turning faith into practical action, living out God's love for the poor."
Ian Sparks
Woodford Green, Essex
• So, "after fewer than three years in office, Thatcher had achieved little beyond tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor" (How an eccentric war turned around Thatcher's fortunes, 2 April). Does that ring any recent bells?
Paul Tharby
Chagford, Devon
• Instead of moaning about being given a new lease of life with a good knee replacement, John Crace (Health, G2, 2 April) should try my late mother's approach. In her late 70s, when she was blind, had had three hip replacements, chronic arthritis and heart disease, she would say with true Yorkshire grit, "there's folk worse off than me".
Brenda Rush
Heckington, Lincolnshire
• John Cranston (Letters, 5 April) suggests Gandhi is the only non-white to have been depicted on Royal Mail stamps, having just mentioned another non-white to have been so honoured, namely Farrokh Bulsara, aka Freddie Mercury.
Harold Somers
Manchester
• Could this variable weather be the cause of our local ice cream van driving about to the tune of We Wish You A Merry Christmas?
Megan Scott
Bolton
