Dentists

Telling stories Sir: As a filmmaker by training and a marketer by profession, I couldn’t agree more with your leading article (‘Northern soul’, 27 June) on the absence of narrative in our politics. The appeal of figures such as Burnham and Nigel Farage lies in the storyworld they build around themselves – be it via pints shared down the pub, off-the-cuff honesty, or a Monty Python line landing in the Commons. But the PM who stays the course, as any brand-builder learns the hard way, must know two things: their own story, well enough to tell it plainly; and the people they speak to, well enough for them to make it their own. Aim a dull narrative at everyone and you reach no one; tell a story worth sharing and both left and right will see themselves in it.

It is now retrospectively acknowledged that great harm was done by the refusal to investigate serious crimes and dangerous mental illness for fear of being branded racist – the grooming gangs, the Southport and Nottingham killings. No similar acknowledgment has been made about the handling of cases involving homosexuals. This week, Jamie Varley was convicted of murder, sexual assault, child cruelty and making and distributing indecent images. His victim was his own adopted baby son, Preston Davey. Varley’s partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, was convicted of lesser crimes against the boy. The details of Preston’s short life and bestial death are abominable.