Sir – I read a letter about old graves, dated July 7. My mum and dad are up there. How could he say old graves need to be ploughed over and all rubble removed.

They have every right to be there and it doesn’t matter how old they are. He might take pride on his family’s graves but he has no right picking on other people’s graves.

The descendants may have gone as well, but you can’t just plough over graves. They were human beings once.

Mrs Faulkner

Worcester

IMF misled on our growth

Sir – Barely a month has passed since the IMF (the head of which has received EU funding) was telling us that voting to leave the EU would be a disaster. But it has now admitted, as we who advocated Leave have said all along, that it got its sums wrong. It was not alone, many other predicted ‘disasters’ by the Remain side, such as three million jobs lost, our isolation, no inward investment and much else, have not happened either.

New predictions from the IMF now show that our economy will have grown by 1.3 per cent by the end of this year, and 1.7 per cent in 2017. This will be outpacing both France and Germany.

How much faster still it will grow once we are truly free remains to be seen, but the signs for continued success are excellent We have many new trade deals in the offing, including the USA whose president was telling us we’d be “at the back of the queue” for trade, shortly before we opted for Brexit.

Our Commonwealth friends are awaiting our emergence from the cold and shadowy protectionism of the EU experiment, so they can begin trading directly with us.

Are there any of the lies and fear-mongering of the Remain camp not left undone by the predicted reality of Brexit?

Will Richards

Malvern

Bus firms do as they please

SIR – The last 30 years have seen a steady erosion of public control over everyday services – railways, utilities, housing, national health. The ideological drive to “roll back the state” gathered pace under cover of the overarching ambition to reduce national debt: so many suffered for an ideal swiftly abandoned post-Brexit. As privatisation of public life now inevitably gathers pace, it’s worth reflecting on a recent local experience – bus services.

To reduce costs, county council handed provision of a service, a lifeline for many, to a private sector supplier – lazily repeating the mantra that the private sector does it better and cheaper. Except we find that now different rules apply. They’re not required to provide a universal service – one that takes account of social need as well as value for money. They can cherry-pick “commercially viable” routes, abandoning without consultation those that may have social value but inadequate shareholder return.

Politicians should be able to hold them to account – but the contract they negotiated doesn’t allow them to. Instead, with reduced funding, councillors pledge support to community groups trying to provide a skeleton service in rural area.

This is a snapshot of what is happening across public life: power without responsibility. We need to take back control.

JULIAN ROSKAMS

Malvern

Green Party Hats off to gardeners

SIR – Congratulations again to the teams of gardeners who have put on a super display of flowers in Evesham.

From the planters in Bridge Street and around Merstow Green, to Abbey Gardens, and Abbey Road, your hard work and effort is much appreciated by residents.

Well done.

Andrew Racey

Evesham