I read with interest that MPs find themselves powerless to moderate an above-inflation 2.7% pay rise recommended by their independent pay review body (Report, 1 March). The government has not had the same difficulties in rejecting the recommendations of the Independent Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body when it comes to doctors’ pay.
Dr Stuart Laurie GP
Liverpool
• Surely now’s the time to remainder Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal (Report, 1 March).
John Bailey
St Albans, Hertfordshire
• I’m a northerner living in the south and Corrie’s “mingebag” jibe (Corrie’s ‘mingebag’ jibe splits the nation, G2, 28 February) sailed past me. I only clutched my pearls worrying about what was happening to Roy!
Jean Jackson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire
• In my Cheshire childhood, mingey was synonymous with parsimonious and could be used to describe a less-than-generous portion of Manchester tart for pudding at school dinners. So many clues in that sentence re region, era and even class. Aren’t words and dialects wonderful?
Carol Ward
Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
• Visiting George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, on the banks of the Potomac, I was fascinated to learn that the mansion had no bathroom – neither for ablutions nor “easement” (Letters, passim). For the latter purpose, the president, his family, his distinguished guests and his house staff had to trek across the front lawn to a hut concealed in the shrubbery and rather wonderfully named “the Necessary”.
Kirsten Cubitt Thorley
Sheffield
• In France one visits le petit coin (the small corner).
William Wood
Maulds Meaburn, Cumbria
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