Perhaps Glasgow’s Episcopal cathedral of St Mary will become the new Gretna Green for English same-sex couples as yet unable to marry one another in Anglican churches south of the border (Glasgow to host first Anglican same-sex marriages in UK, 21 July)? A mock-up carpenter’s shop, as opposed to Gretna’s Old Mill Forge (currently offering an “exclusive use package” for a mere £3,795), could prove to be a nice little earner.
Fr Alec Mitchell
Manchester
• Deborah Dickinson complains (Letters, 20 July) that there is still a legal difference between gay and heterosexual people in that heterosexual couples cannot enter into a civil partnership. Civil partnerships were a public endorsement of the view that gay couples’ relationships are inferior and would taint the institution of marriage. Mixed-sex couples seeking civil partnerships are like gentiles applying to wear a yellow star.
Paul Brownsey
Glasgow
• Dick Van Dyke has no need to apologise for his “atrocious” cockney accent (Report, 22 July). Early English dramas on the radio had very strange accents. BBC radio’s In Town Tonight in the 50s had the flower seller calling out “luverly varlets, lardy”. As a small child in the East End, I got the luverly varlets, but had to ask my mother who lardy was.
Christine Stanton
Cambridge
• It’s a pity that Boots’ morality doesn’t extend to paying proper UK taxes (Boots faces boycott over high cost of morning-after pills, 21 July).
Michael Shipman
London
• Just read the weekend Guide. At number five in the must-watch list TV is Love Island, at no 10 Big Brother. Any truth in the rumour that you plan to go tabloid?
Ian Moir
Sunderland
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