Working in my front garden before Christmas, I watched a seemingly neverending succession of vans, each from a different company, delivering parcels. It struck me as very inefficient and polluting. A much better way would be to have one van deliver all parcels once each day, maybe the vans could be red …
Mark Austin
Horsmonden, Kent
• Shouldn’t the queen be lending her private planes and cars to health workers travelling to Sierra Leone (Report, 30 December)? Their self-sacrifice would be acknowledged and materially supported. The health risk to those workers would be lessened and the public not put at any risk. As head of the Commonwealth she would be following words with deeds.
Quentin Deakin
Tywyn, Gwynedd
• You misunderstand the Jacobite uprisings of the 18th century (Fantasy fans’ pilgrimage to Outlander country, 1 January). They were not anti-English wars but dynastic struggles by the House of Stuart against the British state, which elicited considerable opposition among (particularly lowland) Scots as well as English anti-Jacobites. There was also some support for the Stuart cause among the English, for instance in Lancashire.
Colin McArthur
London
• So glad the enduring appeal of old technologies (In a virtual world we cling to what’s real, Opinion, 31 December) is helping to keep newsprint alive. Long may it maintain the Guardian letters page.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
• I foresee the Paris climate conference as 2015’s key event, and would like to lend a hand in making it a success. With a front page (30 December) containing three stories, all bad news related to air travel, who will join me in a new year resolve to give up flying?
Martin Davis
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
