Regarding the planned spending cuts in Northern Ireland, if ministers would get some sort of PPP in place to fill the public sector funding void, privatise water and other public bodies and sort out the planning system, the cuts would not be so severe

As I write, Tesco, Asda and John Lewis want to build new stores, and can’t get planning permission, and neither can the Belfast city airport extension, and others.

Northern Ireland needs a dose of can-do common sense. Instead, it has squabbling over stuff like having road signs printed in Irish while the big issues are ignored.

Patrick Murdock, via www.building.co.uk