The chancellor has (sensibly) indicated that he expects the pension age to rise as life expectancy increases (New graduates will have to work until 71 before qualifying for state pension, 25 March). He also seeks relative reductions in public sector pay in less affluent areas. In the interests of fairness and consistency, will he now suggest regional differences in the new pension ages? Life expectancy is rather greater in Kensington than Manchester, so their respective pension ages might become, say, 85 and 75 for those born in 2012. After all, if one-third of babies born this year do become centenarians (Report, 27 March), the proportion in affluent areas, with its concomitant costs, will be even higher.
John Haigh
Brighton
• I was curious to read that over a third of babies born today will live to become centenarians. What a relief; I could have sworn I read recently that antibiotics are rapidly becoming resistant to a range of bacteria and we are all doomed to die of boils and TB prematurely (Fears of global TB epidemic as drugs fail to curb new strains, 25 March).
Janis Goodman
Leeds
• Women climbing known alpine peaks (An uphill struggle, 27 March) was news enough in the early 1930s for my mother's "conquest" of the Campanile Basso di Brenta to be reported in the Corriere della Sera. She completed the climb with Pia Piaz, daughter of a famous Dolomite guide. Our own family link with that pillar-peak was sealed when my mother's brother accidentally free-fell from the summit in 1946. And survived.
John Howlett
Rye, East Sussex
• Your photo of the "lady climber" in shorts (Letters, 30 March) certainly shows a nice Pyrenees.
Richard Barnard
Wivenhoe, Essex
• Do I detect on the wall of the 1880s alehouse (Eyewitness, 30 March) the presence of "ale's" in the McEwan's signage? Could this be the earliest evidence of the grocers' apostrophe?
Malcolm Mackenzie
Edinburgh
• If "poverty and alienation" caused last summer's riots (Letters, 30 March), why didn't they happen up here in the north-east?
Jerome Hanratty
Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear