Will this “oven ready” turkey (Chance of a Brexit deal is no higher than 50%, say UK sources, 5 December) be ready for Christmas? A complex, 600-page document to be read, understood, debated and agreed by the finest minds in Britain; let’s hope so.
Marc Smith-Evans
Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines
• I can’t hold it in any longer. Monolith: “a single block of stone” (OED). Not shiny metal sheets riveted together and dropped in the countryside (A Utah monolith enchanted millions and then it was gone, leaving mysteries behind, 5 December). Ah! That’s better!
Nick Pattinson
Stockport, Greater Manchester
• Keith Flett waxes lyrical on the virtues of a Scotch egg as a substantial meal washed down with a pint (Letters, 4 December). Out here in the barren wastes of tier 3 our chances of even a substantial pint have been well and truly scotched.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
• In the light of George Eustace’s suggestion (Report, 1 December) that a Scotch egg in a pub is a substantial meal, I am reminded of the expression “a Glasgow salad”, which refers to a poke of chips with two pickled onions on the top. A poke is, of course, a bag, as in “a pig in a poke”.
Tony Manning
Selkirk, Scottish Borders
• I devoured the Feast recipes on Saturday, a Christmas food special. Of all the recipes, only two have the final instruction of “serve at once”. Both have the main ingredient of brussels sprouts. In case yule change your mind?
Siobhán Ní Chuanaigh
Dublin, Ireland
