In his “new vision of what it means to be English” (7 August), the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, draws to our attention the monarchy, the church and the NHS – the antique, the struggling and the half-privatised. He fails to mention what for many is now the most important: the food bank. Staffed by sensitive volunteers, this institution symbolises a loss of hope of ever achieving a fair society.
Graham Murphy
Liverpool
• Before typed school reports became the norm, I once had to return A-level reports to one teacher with poor handwriting. He had reassured a large number of parents that their offspring “should achieve a piss in June” (Letters, 6 August).
Val Hart
Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire
• In your report (UK government spends more than £163,000 on union flags in two years, 6 August), you forgot to mention the most expensive flag of all – that on the Johnson jet. At £900 000, it is the most expensive flag of them all.
Stephen Hardy
Robertsbridge, East Sussex
• It is interesting that the Guardian of all newspapers should refer to Sweaty Betty – a company founded by Tamara Hill-Norton – as a “husband and wife team” (US footwear firm buys Sweaty Betty in $400m deal, 3 August). Surely it is a “wife and husband team”, if their relationship is relevant at all?
Michael Heaton
Warminster, Wiltshire
• Perhaps Boris Johnson never spends more than 15 minutes with any of his staff (Anger as Boris Johnson does not isolate after staffer’s positive Covid test, 6 August)?
Penny Kay
Lancaster
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