French cars, Victor Meldrew and Ann Droid - your letters and picture from the past

The ​French are driving forward

The reported this week that the British Leyland vehicle manufacturing company was nationalised on 11 August 1975. Exactly 30 years earlier in 1945, the French car-maker Renault was nationalised, and continues in business successfully today, with partial privatisation in the late 1990s leaving the French Government with a 15 per cent stake.

Can anyone offer an explanation for the contrasting fates of motor industry public ownership in Britain and France?

William J Read, Stafford

Owners should chip their cats

I have, in the recent past, written about cats and the owners who want them protected like dogs and other animals, and why they are not included in the Road Traffic Act.

Should Parliament allow this ludicrous attempt to have cats legally protected, the owners should be very careful what the outcome could mean to them.

Like dogs, cats should then be implanted with a chip to identify the owners, which, in turn, should a cat be injured or killed by a moving vehicle and this causes damage to that vehicle, means those owners will be liable for the damage caused. The owners would be fined for allowing their cat to roam without a lead.

All this said, can you imagine the amount of time taken up by police officers who will have to investigate these matters?

What next to be added to the list of protected animals: pigeons, squirrels, foxes, sparrows, blue tits, magpies – in fact, any animal?

Cats roam the streets untethered and enter people's gardens and leave their little messages, so owners, just how do you suggest this matter is to be policed and monitored? All you are thinking is vets' costs when a cat is injured. You let your cats roam and you are responsible, not road users.¶I hate it when animals are killed or injured in such a way, so if you wish your beloved cat to be safe, then take that step that will stop them roaming and keep them on your property securely.

Pete Lowe,

Brierley Hill

I’m turning into a Meldrew!

I wasn’t feeling too good the other morning so I telephoned my doctors surgery seeking advice.Like many old timers, I am not computer literate, I do not have a pilot’s licence for ‘co-pilot’ and I only have a landline telephone to contact the outside world!

My wife remarked that I am getting more like Victor Meldrew everyday when I told her about my telephone call, telling her that I couldn’t believe I was 46th in the queue and refused to wait listening to the most awful music?Peter Hassall, Shifnal

Ann Droid a hit

I wasn’t keen to watch Ann Droid, but I was soon won over. It is a thoughtful portrait of grief – and very funny too. Well done BBC.

Mark Pickett, Shifnal