Thank you for giving a voice to teenage mothers ("Promiscuous scroungers or loving parents?", 24 January). I, like thousands of young parents in the 1960s, lost my only child to adoption because I was too vulnerable at this point in my life to protect her. From that moment on, my life lost its purpose, and I have since spoken with countless other natural mothers of adopted people who have suffered the same, who despite their intelligence and abilities have never achieved their potential because of the unconscious acknowledgement that, whatever they do, it will not repair this huge loss. I now know that I would have been a good mother, and that respectable, married adoptive parents is no guarantee of good parenting, or that an adopted person will be brought up with security and kindness.

Letters: A path to peace in Afghanistan

Saturday, 30 January 2010

Afghan agriculture aid may help pave path to peace

Letters: Corruption and poverty to blame for scandals

Friday, 29 January 2010

Mary Wright (letters, 26 January) is right in asking about a lack of 24-hour GP care, but what Mary Dejevsky was really referring to (Comment, 15 January) was the sad, inevitable outcome of the new GP contract forced upon bewildered, overworked doctors in 2004.

Letters: Cancer treatment

Thursday, 28 January 2010

The phrase 'fighting against cancer' is deeply flawed

Letters: The voting system

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Let disaffected voters express their anger

Letters: Eating disorders

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Dangers of delay in treating eating disorders

Letters: War heroes

Monday, 25 January 2010

The unsung Second World War heroes of Birmingham

IoS letters, emails & online postings (24 January 2010)

Sunday, 24 January 2010

The Church of England's official policy is that gay men in a same-sex relationship should not be serving as bona fide clergy in the Church of England ("The Irreverent Coles", The New Review, 10 January). If Richard Coles has freely chosen celibacy, he is exempt from this official and regularly enforced ban. If he is not celibate, then he must have a powerful patron protecting him. But there are many other clergy who have chosen to be in a same-sex relationship, and are even in a civil partnership, who dare not publicly acknowledge their sexual orientation, for fear of being discriminated against by the increasingly homophobic attitudes of the CofE's main employers – its bishops. It would have been encouraging to hear Richard Coles deplore the deceits that undergird the policy, rather than acquiesce meekly in the name of "patience" over its iniquity. Abuse of the type inflicted on the majority of gay clergy needs to be openly challenged today – not tomorrow.

Letters: GPs' patient care

Saturday, 23 January 2010

The GP of popular imagination is long gone

Letters: Working-class MPs

Friday, 22 January 2010

No voice for the working class in British political life

Letters: Overruns in IT investment

Thursday, 21 January 2010

IT overspend highlights need for reform of bidding

Letters: Whitehall culture

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Why the Whitehall culture cannot cope with IT

Letters: Media and aid in quake zone

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

How do the media reach the quake zone first?

Letters: US and Haiti

Monday, 18 January 2010

The Americans are doing their best to help Haiti

IoS letters, emails & online postings (17 January 2010)

Sunday, 17 January 2010

When Lady Ashton, newly appointed EU First High Representative for Foreign Affairs, was "grilled" in the House of Commons last week, she was asked, as a former treasurer for CND, whether she still supported unilateral nuclear disarmament by the UK. I was shocked by the dismissive and disparaging way in which she replied that she had had no connection with CND for 29 years, as if those who continue to support this cause are either simple-minded innocents or traitorous outcasts. If only those "innocents" who marched to Aldermaston in 1958 had been listened to in the first place, the world nuclear scene might not be what it is today. However, it is hoped Lady Ashton does support multilateral nuclear disarmament, and, if involved in the important 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference taking place in New York from 3 to 28 May, she will give full support to any measures for the reduction of nuclear weapons worldwide and for the safe storage of nuclear materials. In doing so she would be helping to start the process of President Obama's dream of a nuclear-free world.