I’m disappointed you used the picture of Ed Miliband eating a bacon roll (G2, 29 December). Wait beside anyone with a loaded camera and sooner or later they can be pictured losing their dignity; spluttering on a hot drink, picking their nose or appearing to make a rude gesture. Of all embarrassing photos, this one is constantly reproduced. It seems to me the reason is the antisemitic subliminal message: Ed Miliband is a Jew; he chokes on bacon.
Michael Hudson
Lincoln
• In his unnecessarily wordy thesis arguing that we have become passive consumers of the conflict in the Middle East (Click away now: how bloodshed in the desert lost its reality, 23 December), Will Self has conveniently forgotten about the largest protest march in British history in February 2003, which arguably played a key role 10 years later in halting the planned US-UK attack on Syria in August 2013.
Ian Sinclair
Author, The March That Shook Blair: An Oral History of 15 February 2003
• We need a serious discussion, one that includes HGV drivers, about lorry design (Report, 27 December): where the bin-men sit; where the dead-man’s handle is situated; how long it takes a runaway lorry to stop.
Godfrey Holmes
Withernsea, East Yorkshire
• Julian Baggini (Move your money from the high street and help to achieve a fairer society, 31 December 2013) stirred us into new year action. After 50 years we left one of the big banks for a mutual building society. The switch was easy. The original local, courteous and friendly staff has changed for another. Providers who are mutual, local, environmental and responsible encourage a fairer society. They are out there – still waiting for more of us to join in.
Sarah and Richard Titford
Sudbury, Suffolk
• May I make a plea for at least one Christmas quiz next year that all the family can do together, with a reasonable chance of getting most of the answers, without resorting to media devices. The quiz should also have a children’s section. Your quizzes seem more about the cleverness of the questioners rather than welcome entertainment that is not too taxing after drink and food. The Financial Times and the Spectator were also at fault, I thought.
Geoff Smith
Huddersfield
• Let’s hear it for the 11,000 workers who gave up their Christmases to work on improving the railways (Report, 29 December).
John Hurdley
Birmingham
