Letters: All work and no play

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There is no doubt in my mind that when people are stressed and worked to the bone, they are less productive… it’s common sense. The latest study into productivity at work (in yesterday’s edition) took into consideration those over the age of 40 – and my feeling is that the same could be said for all workers regardless of age… a three-day working week is optimal and part-time employment is king. This study aligns itself with the on-going crusade for flexible working hours, but that is something we should all be taking seriously and reports like this don’t fully address the real story that needs to be told.

A frightening recent study published in Science Alert reported that individuals working 55 hours or more per week had a 33 per cent greater risk of stroke and a 13 per cent increased risk of developing coronary heart disease. Companies promote wellness programmes, that include flexible working, based on the idea that your health affects your work, but ignore the fact that the reverse can also be true. It shouldn't be about packing as much into your day as possible so that you pass out as soon as you hit your pillow, but about using your time to unwind and do the things that help you keep your head above water. If employers supported their employees by promoting wellness and mindfulness, and offering flexible working, they too would benefit from happier, more productive teams. It doesn't matter what age they are or how many hours they work a week... Without your health, you have nothing.

Richard Walton

Cape Town, South Africa

Brexit

In Michael Gove’s speech urging Britain to leave the EU, he compared the organisation to a highly selective list of previously failed empires. He envisions Brexit leading to the ‘democratic liberation of a whole Continent’ from the evil bureaucratic EU Empire. This is ironic because the heart of the right wing Vote Leave campaign is a yearning for Britain’s previous place in the world, as an imperial power ‘on which the sun never sets’. Vote Leave has even published a letter on their website from a host of British people of apparent ‘Commonwealth backgrounds’ to urge Britain ‘rediscover Britain’s global vocation’ by engaging directly with the Commonwealth. In this rewriting on colonial history Britain ‘share’s a historical and cultural friendship with the Commonwealth’, that can be the basis for success post-Brexit.

The audacity of Gove and the Vote Leave evoking empire, democracy and the Commonwealth really is astounding. The British Empire was a brutal force that enslaved, colonised and murdered millions across the globe in order to build its powerbase.

Thankfully, the British Empire was defeated after decades of resistance and is no longer propped up by its colonies. This is a reality that has failed to sink in with Gove and his allies, as they look back in teary eyed reminiscence to Empire’s former glory. Britannia no longer rules the waves and is a relatively small country with little productive output or influence on the world stage. It’s time to stop the delusions and realise that Britain needs the EU, because the days of Empire are long gone.

Dr Kehinde Andrews

Associate Professor in Sociology

School of Social Sciences, Birmingham City University

Birmingham

Apparently Michael Gove has a problem with the EU Remain campaign “treating the public like children who can be frightened into obedience” and “conjuring up bogeymen”. Of course as part of Better Together, he found those very tactics perfectly acceptable when the public in question were the Scottish electorate during the 2014 Independence referendum. I need hardly add the word hypocrite here.

Girdwood Anderson

Aberdeen

So Mr Gove attacks Mr Cameron for trying to frighten us with bogeymen.

And in the same breath tries to frighten us with the bogeyman of a weakened ability to counter terrorism if we stay in the EU. Come on, Mr Gove: we're not children.

Martin Smith

Oxford

One of the main arguments put forward by the Brexit campaign is that the UK, as the fifth largest economic in the world, would easily be able to set up favourable trade agreements with the likes of India, China, Brazil etc. As far as I am aware there is nothing in the terms of our EU membership that prevents us from creating such trade agreements while still a member. Surely the prudent thing would be to put such agreements in place before deciding to leave the EU rather than burning our bridges in the hope that we will be able to create new markets? Once out of the EU it will be very difficult to re-enter the EU on our current preferential terms whereas, having created new world markets, it would be easier to leave if we so wished.

Chris Elshaw

Hampshire

Junior doctors’ contract

One reason that junior doctors are continuing to fight imposition of this unsafe and unfair contract is that we know it will dangerously overstretch services, which we fear is a tactic designed to cause NHS services to fail. Only last week an A&E unit was forced to close because of understaffing. Having already carved up NHS services and sanctioned private companies to provide NHS contracts all we need is the proverbial straw to break this amazing institution's back, after which the government will be able to start a mass sell off and complete healthcare privatisation. The fallout from this contract could be that straw. The NHS failing seems to be exactly what this government want. Failure means privatisation, which fits with their policies of small government and no state handouts. If we want to save the NHS, we must keep fighting this contract!

Dr Jonathan Barnes

London