Ideas of “illegitimacy” (Letters, 17 April) remained potent for some at least as late as the 1990s. When I registered my firstborn, I refused to say whether I was married and insisted my partner’s name also go on the certificate. The registrar, horrified, told me: “But then your child will be registered as illegitimate!” I had to point out to her that illegitimacy had not been a legal category for some time. But I didn’t tell her that I’d been born in a mother-and-baby home. I found her words ridiculous, but they could as easily have been an unnecessary (and inaccurate) cruelty.
Naomi Standen
Birmingham
• As the 1 May local elections near, Nigel Farage’s campaign is featured in every media outlet. The reports seem to suggest that it consists of a pub crawl around the country. I wonder if Farage is aware of the Alex Glasgow song As Soon As This Pub Closes (The Revolution Starts)?
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London
