Letters: We need judges with practical experience

Judges of experience

Sir: In the midst of the furore about the Supreme Court judgment, many people are now questioning how the senior judiciary are appointed (‘Imbalance of power’, 28 September). Lady Hale is undoubtedly extremely clever. But perhaps that is at the heart of the problem. It is well established that the ranks of academia are now predominantly left-wing in their political views and this has unfortunately permeated down to the teaching profession in schools. I am a retired barrister who specialised in employment law, working in companies which were highly unionised. During my career I gained immeasurable practical experience, but as time went on I realised I was drifting further and further apart from lawyers in pure academic fields. I feel that it would be preferable for judges to be appointed who had many years of practical experience behind them, rather than be subjected to inquisition on their political beliefs.
John R. McErlean

Elstow, Beds

Trivial detail

Sir: It is true that there was briefly a surge in people googling the question ‘What is the EU?’ after the referendum (Letters, 21 September). The Daily Telegraph discovered that it happened between 1.30 and 4.30 a.m. on 24 June, and involved 1,000 people or fewer. What is remarkable is not that trivial detail, but the fact that Remainers (including your correspondent) have been citing it ever since as evidence that the entire Leave vote was based on ignorance. Their argument is absurd, not only because of the numbers involved, but also because even omniscient Google does not know how — or whether — those 1,000 people voted. The only valid conclusion to be drawn here is not about the Leave vote, but about the power of prejudice.
Sir Noel Malcolm

Oxford

Impossible lighting

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Ross Clark

Could China collapse the US economy?

Sir: In his entertaining article on sewers, Stuart Jeffries writes that a banquet was held at one of Bazalgette’s new pumping stations at Crossness in 1865, and that the new sewers were decorated with fairy lights (‘Notes from the Underground’, 28 September).