I must acknowledge Ruth Marr's alacrity (Letters, March 4) in beating me to ridiculing Theresa May's repeating of the now well-worn, boring and misapplied “day job “jibe. Quite apart from this one, I find current corny cliches in general to be, boring, banal and pointless. For example, simple oral questions are inevitably responded to (or not as the case may be) with the prefix "so" and will almost certainly include "let me be perfectly clear" prior to delivering an obscure rendering, which will most likely be as clear as mud and as polluted as dishwater.

Oh for the halcyon days of oratory which was poignant, original, humorous and targeted to inflict most damage. Such as Winston Churchill's famous "In the morning I shall be sober, but you madam will still be ugly (or words to that effect). Or perhaps Denis Healey's wonderful "it was like being savaged by a dead sheep" retort. Continuing in the same vein, Michael Heseltine's outstanding harangue of the Labour front benches, whom he accused of "marching like an army of one-legged soldiers; Left, left, left, left, left". Not to forget of course, Jim Sillars's introduction to Parliament when he promised the Thatcherites, with regard their leader: "We'll make her sit on a thistle."

I have not, for many years now, heard anything from our politicians which even approaches these standards. Perhaps that is simply because they do not have the ability.

Ian Cooper,

Flat 3/3, 1 Jackson Place, Bearsden.