SOME of the Northern Powerhouse estimates for job creation are frankly dream world. They say up to 74,000 jobs – but not before 2060!

A better plan would be for the next 40 years to be zero immigration, combined with annual birth rate no more than two thirds of annual death rate, to reduce the numbers to a sustainable level, in balance with food, housing and work availability.

In fact, this policy should have been in force since 1965 when the pill became available to control females, plus vasectomy since 1970 to control males.

With a then 600,000 death rate and controlled 400,000 birth rate, the population could have been reduced by a million every five years.

We are 50 years on, which equals 10 million reduction, and would have eliminated many of the UK’s serious problems.

Quite apart from food and fresh water, with robots and computers the ability to provide worthwhile work from any nation's sardine population is nil.

We would need to revert back to labour intensive methods until the millions of superfluous had been phased out.

I’m afraid such thinking is far too advanced for the masses, and I won’t be here, trying to survive in a resulting mad house. I really do feel for young folks, vast numbers of whom are no-hopers.

GB Butler, Stockton-on-Tees.