I am continually surprised and then annoyed to hear about how hard everyone is working in Britain, and, it seems, how they are owed so much by the meddlesome lazy Europeans and their 35 hour weeks and 6 or 7 weeks annual holiday.

Britain recently made it to 8th place in a study of the most productive countries, behind USA, Ireland, Belgium and France (5th).

For goodness sake, stop hanging around the coffee machine worrying about some meaningless mottos, and Do Some Bloody Work !! You might just get to 2nd place.... Britain spends far too much time concerned about the (over inflated) values of property and expects inflationary values to take care of its future needs.

I despair everytime I return to the rude, arrogant, lazy UK.

HUBBLE, Evian, France

National motto: Keep principles clean, change 'em.

Eddie McGrath, Stowmarket, Suffolk, U.K.

Perhaps if Gordon Brown and the Labour party revitalised manufacturing in this country, along with fishing and farming industries then they wouldn't have to insist on young people staying in school as there might be a useful apprenticeship. Then again if they do not regain control of the borders the public purse and parents may have to fund youngsters until they are well out of youth completely as there will be no jobs for them at all. Ever.

Philipa, Worcester, Woman

Instead of citizen's juries, I have a really progressive, innovative idea which will expand the ability of Government to understand what the people think about various proposals and policies.

We start by canvessing all the areas of the country for th epublic in each region to nominate people to represent them. Those representatives would have a close understanding of the specific needs of thier local areas and people, and would meet with the local people regularly to keep in touch.

Those representatives could then assemble together in a grand building somewhere (how about in London) and all together they would be able to speak with knowledge and authority and render representative opinions on the issues to the day, working with Government to be a truly representative force for the will of the people, and guiding the Government with feedback and ideas.

How innovative would that be? We could call them "Members of Parliament" and even pay them a salary...

John, Bournemouth, Dorset

The proposal for teeangers to stay at school until they are 18 is a no less than a ban on their (current) freedom to get a head start on the others by getting a job (perhaps an apprenticeship) and earning some money. Charming! And all those pregneant teenagers turning up for lessons. Hmm! I'm sure they'll be very motivated.

DavidO, Thames Diton, Surrey

Gordon Brown must be bonkers. Are all those frustrated teenagers who have been kept at school against their will for an extra two years, and those whose education is going to be disrupted by them, going to vote for him when they leave said school at eighteen?

Stewart Ware, London, UK

It's the unfathomable logic of this latest Brown wheeze that makes it so perverse. Put briefly, he must believe that as most schoolchildren are leaving school at 16 uneducated and illiterate, if they are compelled by law to remain in 'education' until they are 18 and their parent(s) is (are) made criminally liable if they don't, then they will knuckle down in those extra 2 years and leave school as well educated as,say a 1960's primary school pupil. Be careful Broon, if you educate them too much they may not vote New Labour.

B. J. Carroll, Liverpool, England

What is the difference between Hugo Chavez Frias, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Francois Bozize Isaias, Afworki, Bingu wa Mutharika, Armando Guebuza, Umaru Yar’dua, Pervez Musharraf, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, Ernest Bai Koroma, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, Robert Mugabe, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa and Gordon Brown? Apart from the fact that the former have the sorts of names that football commentators feel duty bound to say in full every time they are referred to? I do not know the difference. Do you? Authoritarian, un-contestable, self-glorifying, loud, delusionary and bullying; omnipotent, grandiose and ‘psychologically flawed’, who can say. But how strange that, like the impurities in the steel process, they rise to the top all over the world. It is one thing having something to say but a totally different thing just wanting power for the sake of it; both Brutus and brutal when we yearn for Anthony and alacrity.

Malcolm Turner, Alsager, England

I read a valedictory address from one of our Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia in Mrs Thatcher's time. As you say, beautifully written and, from my experience of KSA, totally accurate. But had it been published there would have been a major row, maybe even no more ambassadors! The gap between reality and apparent reality is a danger and no more so than when politicians act on the latter rather than the former.

Phil , Jakarta,

And still no-one knows how these "Citizens' Juries" are selected. As for Balls, the name says it all.

Who will rid is of this meddlesome government?

Jeremy Poynton, Fromeville, 51st State

Matthew and Libby Purves are doing a good job in reminding us weekly of the idiocies which Brown is forcing on us, first as the Chancellor, now as Prime Minister. Many of us actually have seen through this deceitful bully since well before the press. What we really need is for Matthew and others to start telling us how we can be rid of him before any more damage is done. Cameron seems to be genuinely angry, which is a good start, but who can unload the real firestorm that will result in us being greeted by the happier dawn of a Brown and Balls-free future?

Chris, Reading,

Matthew, could you tell the Buffoon in No 10 that we, or at least the British Monarchy, have a national motto 'Dieu et mon droit' What's good enough for Her Majesty is good enough for me. .
Why waste more money on reinventing the wheel?

David Ellis, Tarves, Aberdeenshire.