You fail to mention (UK among six countries to hit 0.7% UN aid spending target, 5 January) that the United Arab Emirates has met the UN commitment of spending 0.7% of gross national income since 2013. The most recent OECD report, quoted in your article, shows that the UAE contributed 1.09% of GNI towards overseas aid in 2015, making it second only to Sweden in terms of aid spending as a proportion of GNI. The UAE shares the UK’s commitment to overseas aid.
Sulaiman Almazroui
UAE ambassador
• It’s not often jazz hits the headlines. What a pity that when it does it displays ignorance of the genre (If every player plays like a jazz musician, it’ll be chaos, 4 January). Pep Guardiola may not like jazz, but he should be aware that it is a highly disciplined music which demands complex musical skills and team spirit. That’s why Ray Charles liked to choose jazz musicians for his tour bands and why many classical performers I know envy the improvisational skills of jazzers – which I would have thought football managers would encourage in their players.
Mike Gordon
Director, Scarborough Jazz Festival
• Immigration minister Robert Goodwill’s appalling stonewalling of Dom Wolf’s application for a UK passport (I was born here but can’t get a UK passport, 6 January) is a crazy counter-example of nominative determinism.
David Hutchinson
Bridport, Dorset
• Wouldn’t it make more sense to pay people more, rather than lending them more (Rise in consumer debt ‘should ring alarm bells’, 5 January)?
Roy Boffy
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
• In light of the revelation of interference in the US presidential vote by Russia (Report, 5 January), would a closer scrutiny of the UK referendum be in order?
Frank Farrell
Dumfries
• A singer friend says that when performing to an audience of one, that person is “an audient”. Furthermore, a single clap should be called “an applau” (Letters, 6 January).
Michael Hurdle
Woking, Surrey
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