Southern rail has a long track record for poor service. In your report (14 July), you say the owners have been fined £13.4m. This is a company that was rewarded with a £100m profit last year, so not a particularly onerous sanction. Your report goes on to say that the owners of Southern, Govia Thameslink Railways, will spend the “fine” on a package of improvements to its franchise. A fine to carry out improvements to your own wholly inadequate, but highly profitable, service is not a fine.
Peter Negri
Norwich
• Your report on the lack of Customs cover at small ports (Small ports left unvisited by Border Force, 13 July) highlights the folly of cutting civil service numbers. When I worked in Customs and Excise in the 1970s and 80s we had a number of coast preventive men who visited their local small ports regularly in blue Mini cars, gathering intelligence and acting as a visible deterrent at minimal cost. The Thatcher government was the first of many to prioritise short-term financial saving over long-term security and benefit to the exchequer.
Ian Arnott
Peterborough
• The question asking for a semicolon actually requires a colon because it marks a causal connection: “Come and see me tomorrow: I will not have time to see you today.” (Straight commas lose Sats marks for primary children, 11 July). Who authorises these pedants to outscore writers such as George Bernard Shaw by turning our language into a disabling obstacle race?
Joan Griffiths
London
• Re John Davies’ cocker spaniel who picks up single cans (Letters, 14 July), my springer spaniel Finn not only picks up cans and bottles but also drops them into a plastic bag to be taken home for recycling. His personal best is five objects.
Vanessa Rickett
Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
• Nice to see that you described the lowering of a player’s shorts to enforce the Wimbledon dress code as a “crackdown” (Report, 14 July).
Michael Cunningham
Wolverhampton
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