It is all very well for Mervyn King and George Osborne to invoke the "Olympic example" as a way of saving the sinking economy (No growth this year, 9 August), but I would have more confidence in them if they showed any sign of understanding and following the true Olympic experience of people such as Dave Brailsford, British Cycling's performance director. Brailsford has spoken repeatedly of the need for a four-year plan at least, for total dedication to delivering it, for total honesty about poor performance within the team (coalition cabinet please note), and above all for unswerving pursuit of "marginal gains", which he has always insisted is the only "secret" that British Cycling possesses.
To achieve success through such aims the government – any British government – would have to abandon the indulgence in sound bites, forgo attempting to command the elusive daily news cycle and give up addiction to catchy policy initiatives as a substitute for real action. For a start, ministers might avoid glib Olympic comparisons until it is clear that they have absorbed the true lessons of what it takes to win an Olympic gold.
John Tusa
London
• Could we stop putting quotation marks around Dave Brailsford's "aggregation of marginal gains", first dropped into a conversation with the Guardian's cycling correspondent four years ago? The idea was proposed by Wilhelm Steinitz, a 19th-century chess world champion. The "accumulation of advantages" is described in the Oxford Companion to Chess as "the gradual gain of advantages which are not decisive individually, but collectively may be so". What Wilhelm would have made of "hot pants" I have no idea.
Brian China
Leicester