I WAS a teenager before I ever saw the inside of a restaurant; prior to that “eating out” was for “toffs” and any food not cooked in the family kitchen came from the local chippie. Those were the days when the BBC reported the “trade gap” weekly as it was sometimes good news, which never happens now for fear of panicking those with the wit to understand its significance.

Today we have appear to have an economy where employment and the GDP are heavily reliant on the service sector, one based on fast food and beer, a nation of obese fatties and wobblies encouraged to diet for health reasons whilst at the same time being told to get out and eat as there is a £10 off all you can eat. Not “Dig for Victory” it’s “Eat for Victory”. At the same time the working population is being herded back into city centres not because they cannot work from home but because they are not spending enough in city centre shops bars and restaurants.

Perhaps what we were led to believe for all those years was “normal” wasn’t actually and wasn’t in our collective best interests.

David J Crawford, Glasgow G12.

MESSAGES IN A NAME

I ENJOYED Thelma Edward’s letter (August 4), which, as she says, was a propos nothing very much really. I would like to add my own bit of whimsy.

In a bygone day my wife would take the children to the local mini market on a regular visit. She invariably saw a near neighbour who would always be buying the same things. So the neighbour was then known as Mrs One Pint of Milk and Two Bananas.

Eric Macdonald, Paisley.