We keep hearing that the Ryanair crisis is due to a shortage of trained pilots (Opinion, 30 September). According to the CAA, just 6% of British pilots are women; the figure worldwide is 3%. Go figure, guys.
Roger Osborne
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
• If you stand by any of the many old pagodas in Mawlamyine (formerly Moulmein) looking eastward, you will have your back to the sea. I had always wondered why Kipling got it so wrong, but, as your article makes clear (Report, 30 September), he was only in Myanmar for three days and probably never went to Moulmein. Boris should beware of using the poet of empire for geopolitical guidance.
Frank Donald
Edinburgh
• Joyce Hawthorn (Letters, 2 October) was right to complain about the unfairness of nine out of 50 recommendations for Sunday lunches being in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Given the respective populations, England was slightly under-represented in the list.
Alison Smart
London
• Excited by Michael Billington’s review of King Lear at Chichester (2 October), I went at once to the theatre website to buy tickets. Every performance, of course, sold out. What is the point of reviewing productions we cannot get to see, and why do theatres allow such a short run?
Frank Danes
Ely, Cambridgeshire
• Now that Twitter is trialling doubling the length of tweets to 280 characters (Report, 26 September, theguardian.com) it is surely time to retaliate and double the space available for readers’ letters.
Keith Flett
London
• Goats’ and ewes’ milk (and their derivative yoghurts and cheeses) are at least as good as cows’ milk in terms of iodine content (G2, 2 October), and are less likely to trigger the intolerance reactions sometimes experienced with cows’ milk.
Pam Lunn
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
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