Polly Toynbee does not comment on the ironies of Iain Duncan Smith calling for the poor to change their reproductive behaviour (Opinion, 17 December). Perhaps he thinks that couples who have had two children will cease to want sex – because surely the country’s “most influential Catholic” cannot be advocating birth control?
Philippa Sutton
Newcastle upon Tyne
• Re: Real seniors (Pass notes, 16 December), on a recent visit to Drummond Castle Gardens near Crieff, we were amused and delighted by the categories at the ticket office: adult, super adult and child. Good to find a place that does not patronise its older visitors. I write as a super adult but by no means yet a real super adult.
Rosemary Philip
Edinburgh
• While on holiday in Turkey recently, our guide referred to older people as pensioneers, which we all rather liked. It gives the feeling of purpose and activity to the status.
Gill Jewell
Leeds
• Stockport, Stockport, so good they named it once, / Within the see of Chester, not known for clerical stunts; / Your suffragan can proudly say / “An historic Rector, me” / A cassocked queen who’s not too gay, / Mould-breaking C of E (Church of England’s first female bishop set to be named today, 17 December)!
Fr Alec Mitchell
Manchester
• What should you spend on a Christmas tree (Report, 16 December)? Nothing if you have access to a winter garden. This year my tree consists of sprigs of bay and forsythia twigs. Each year it is different. The lights are 25 years old.
Selina Bates
Truro, Cornwall
• Southerners keen to experience the wonderful, uplifting Sheffield pub carols tradition (Report, 15 December) can do so at the Waterman’s Arms, Richmond on Thames (18 December at 8pm) and the Bricklayers Arms, Putney (21 December at 2pm).
Graham Larkbey
London
