Bats get an undeserved bad press, so it is a shame that you used a bat photo to illustrate your piece on where coronavirus came from (Origin story, 12 December). The article explains how it could have been one of quite a number of the species in the Wuhan wildlife market. Congratulations, though, on highlighting the prosecution of Bellway Homes for wanton destruction of bats and bat roosts (Bellway housebuilders fined £600,000 for destroying bat roost in south London, 11 December).
Sue Miller
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• I found it incongruous, after seeing more evidence on your news pages of brain disease following concussion incurred by rugby players (Concussion sufferers twice as likely to develop brain diseases, study finds, 11 December), to read the blood-and-thunder reports of the Anthony Joshua/Kubrat Pulev fight, including the ringside language encapsulated by Pulev’s “Tomorrow I’m going to destroy you” (Anthony Joshua: ‘If I don’t take this guy serious, I’m giving him a chance’, 11 December): sadly, truer than he might realise.
John Bailey
St Albans, Hertfordshire
• Boris Johnson now calls no deal an “Australia-style” deal (Report, 11 December)? A bit like calling a dead person “alternatively oxygenated”.
Brian Wilson
Glossop, Derbyshire
• Any suggestions, please, for maintaining sanity while feeling overwhelmed with impotent frustration and rage as this shower of incompetent, ignorant excuses for humanity we laughingly refer to as “the government” fumble ineptly with our future?
Mary Jackson
Offham, East Sussex
• As a pensioner, I receive an extra £200 annually towards winter fuel that I really don’t need. I have just donated my £200 to the Guardian charity appeal for 2020. Please can I urge other pensioners, in a similar financial position, to do the same?
Gay Jewell
Rinsey, Cornwall
