'What’s the point of having the best rights in the world with no jobs to implement them in?' - Your Letters: August 9

Letters July 28, Charles Byatt suggesting we should all support the Bill of workers’ rights. On top of last years NI's and exorbitant increase in the minimum wage the implementation of the Bill will have a chilling effect on jobs. The cost to employers is over £5 billion money they simply don't have.

Already 50,000 business are in the danger of going bankrupt because of Reeves mismanagement of our economy. What’s the point of having the best rights in the world with no jobs to implement them in?

Keith Jones, West Midlands 

POWERFUL WORK OF ART IN CITY

Few cities erect statues to living people but trailblazing Wolverhampton has done just that. Professor Mel Chevannes’ sculpture was unveiled on Windrush Day and currently stands inside the Art Gallery near its St. Peter’s Walk entrance.

I’m writing to urge Star readers to come and enjoy this powerful new work which nicely combines symbolism with a stunning likeness of its subject.

The beautiful, bronze bust (which was gifted to the city by the independent, Mel’s Statue Support Group) is by a Harborne artist, Hannah Northam. 

Mel, who has lived in Wolverhampton for 50 years, is in her eighties and in her time has been: a nurse, a Wolverhampton councillor, a professor at Central Lancashire University and dean of the School of Health at Wolverhampton. However she feels that the statue doesn’t just celebrate her as an individual but really celebrates all the ‘Windrush Generation’ nurses who came to work in the early NHS.

At the moment there is some debate as to where the statue’s permanent home should be. However the Art Gallery, which has worked untiringly for many years to develop its reputation as a genuinely popular and welcoming public space, seems to me to be the ideal place for it. I feel strongly that the sculpture deserves both to be seen by many and properly protected.

Jefny Ashcroft, West Midlands

TOO LONG OVER BOAT MEASURES

Hurrah, finally the Foreign Secretary has announced a raft (bet that pun wasn't spotted!) of measures to stop the selling of boats enabling illegal immigration into this country.

If this is so simple why has it taken months to implement?

W I Huxley, Shrewsbury

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