There must surely be a lesson for so-called centre-left politicians in the UK and elsewhere following the stunning victory by Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral election (How Mamdani built an ‘unstoppable force’ that won over New York, 6 November). If people are offered bold, progressive solutions and an inclusive message of hope for the many, they usually embrace the opportunity for change. As Barack Obama said, “the future looks a little bit brighter”.
Matthew Ryder
St Neots, Cambridgeshire

In Jonathan Jones’s piece on the 18th-century painting Earthstopper (Wright of Derby: From the Shadows review – science, skeletons and a suffocated cockatoo, 4 November), he describes the practice of blocking a fox’s den for an easy kill as “nefarious” by 21st-century moral standards. Indeed, it is criminal, yet this dirty trick continues openly today, 252 years later, despite the foxhunting ban in 2004.
Penny Woollams
Holne, Devon

Surely it is local consumers who destroy local shops, not Morrisons (Letters, 6 November). No one has forced them to accept lower prices or home deliveries. A community shop with a second-hand e-cargo bike might compete on deliveries, if not prices. But it’s the locals who walk away and then complain.
Peter West
London

I have enjoyed the reflections on what and who is cool (Letters, 7 November). But it took Holger Czukay, the bass-playing co-founder of the German sonic adventurers Can, to tell us where: “in the pool”, of course.
Tony Fisher
Gotham, Nottinghamshire

Guardian letter writers – they’re smug (Letters, 6 November)(.
Patrick Sheehy
Blackheath, London