The death penalty was abolished 50 years ago this week on 9 November 1965. The murder of Becky Watts was a distressing and disturbing event (Report, 12 November), but it is not a reason to bring back hanging. As Roy Jenkins, central to the campaign for abolition, would no doubt have noted, not taking a life for a life is one marker of a civilised society and that remains the case five decades on.
Keith Flett
London
• Helmut Schmidt (Obituary, 11 November) shares with Mr Gladstone the distinction of having given his name to an everyday object. The German sea-captain’s cap which he usually wore, once known as a Prinz-Heinrich-Mütze (after the younger brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II), is now commonly referred to in Germany as a Schmidt-Mütze.
David McAvoy
Wigan
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Source: Guardian Environment