How they got it right on 54BC and all that

Forecasts that the Muslim population of the UK and other European countries could increase substantially by 2050 (Report, 30 November) presuppose that all children of Muslims will grow up to be Muslims. While many children inherit their religious beliefs from their parents, others read widely and reason for themselves. Some of those children will follow other religions, or no religion. How many people of Christian heritage in the UK are Christians? How many Britons of Muslim heritage will be Muslims in the year 2050?

Dominic Rayner

Leeds

• I am delighted David Boyle (In Brexit, as in war, the lions are being led by donkeys, 29 November) praises the brilliant but neglected book On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, by the late Norman Dixon. It should be read by all ministers and Whitehall mandarins as well as Sandhurst cadets. The chapter headings offer clues to the author’s thesis – and their contemporary relevance. ‘Bullshit’, Authoritarianism, and Mothers of Incompetence are just three of them.

Richard Norton-Taylor

London

• I’m a remainer, but I wonder if Fortnum & Mason’s staffing problem (You can’t get the staff, 1 December) is less to do with Brexit, and more with a local problem: the disparity between what Fortnum & Mason pay their staff and what it costs to live within commuting distance of Piccadilly.

David Garner

Southport

• It is interesting that Donald Trump finds a moral equivalence between racists and anti-racists at Charlottesville yet fails to spot the moral equivalence between the violent extremists of Britain First and the violent extremists of Islamic terrorism (PM joins storm of protest over Trump tweets, 1 December).

Roy Boffy

Sutton Coldfield

• Good to see Sellar and Yeatman, the authors of 1066 and All That, proved right by the archaeological record showing the Romans landed at Thanet for their invasion of Britain (Report, 29 November).

Paul F Faupel

Somersham, Cambridgeshire

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