In equating jihadists with those who went to fight fascism in Spain, Michael Leeder (Letters, 3 December) somehow can’t see the crucial difference between them. Ralph Fox and his colleagues did not intend to return home in order to blow up people in this country.
Adam Czerniawski
Monmouth
• Michael Dixon of the NHS Alliance proclaims that general practitioners are on their knees (Letters, 4 December). It was revealed earlier this year that over 16,000 GPs earn more than £100,000 a year and that more than 600 have annual salaries in excess of £200,000. One wonders how many members of the public would like to adopt a posture like that of Dr Dixon and his colleagues.
Colin Armstrong
Belfast
• I was also, like Tim Dowling (2 December), plagued by vishing, although I didn’t know it was called that. I found an even easier solution than not answering the landline; I had it removed. After all, how quaint it seems now to telephone a building and hope that the person to whom you wish to speak might actually be there.
Ian Churchill
Leeds
• The government announces £15bn to be spend on roads (Hold on to your ley lines, 1 December). “Clegg pledges £200m to encourage cycling” (27 November) “in an attempt to make Britain a nation that loves its bicycles”. The discrepancy is stark, and puts paid to any notion that the government wants to make us a healthier nation.
Raymond Fisher
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• Intrigued by the proposed Belfast Urban Motorway (Why coalition’s planned roads may go nowhere, 2 December). Even more fascinated to hear that the Bum project would have “created a large ring of free-flowing traffic”. Now that’s one 1970s project I’m glad they didn’t follow through on...
Sebastian St John Clarke
Diss, Norfolk
