Wordsearch setters (17 December) should pay more attention to Feast. Then they would probably know that a spice is a substance made from a plant, used to give a special flavour to food (Cambridge Dictionary definition). Salt is but a humble mineral, sodium chloride. Onions and garlic are vegetables, though the latter can just about pass muster as a spice.
Alan Lehmann
Lewes, East Sussex
• I know it’s traditional to wait until late winter or early spring before launching into correspondence heralding the first sight, hearing or smell of nature’s re-emergence, but one of my roses has started blooming. In Yorkshire. In mid-December. Good thing or bad?
John Richardson
South Cave, East Yorkshire
• I can understand why the government would like retired teachers to help out at schools. Might it also be interested in retired prime ministers helping out the current one? Why didn’t we appreciate sufficiently, when he was in office, the qualities of Gordon Brown, so clearly on display in his article (A bold plan saved the world economy in 2009. With this new plan, we can control Covid, 20 December)?
Richard Webb
Penistone, South Yorkshire
• It was wonderful to see the prime minister blaming the media for the disillusionment with his government in North Shropshire (Report, 17 December). Boris Johnson denouncing irresponsible journalism: that’s poetic justice.
William Wallace
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• Come on Tories! Take back control. Get Boris done.
Dick Tuckey
Ipswich
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