Lord Sumption’s comments on the value of human life are remarkably insensitive, and surprisingly silly (Lord Sumption tells stage 4 cancer patient her life is ‘less valuable’, 17 January). As a retired academic with stiffening joints, I fully accept that I’m less valuable as a roofer than the man who fixes my chimney, but I’m not less valuable as a person than he is. Sumption is confused about comparatives.
Dr Malcolm Millar
Liverpool
• One of the terrible effects of the lockdowns has been that the deaths of tens of thousands of UK citizens have passed by without proper recognition. May I suggest that 2 March, the official date of the first death resulting from Covid in this country, be marked with a two-minute silence at 11am?
Stephen Dorril
Netherthong, West Yorkshire
• Salisbury Cathedral is to become a vaccination centre, and there will be background organ music (Report, 16 January). But what to play? Brahms wrote an exquisite piece based on the hymn “A great and mighty wonder, a full and holy cure”. It even continues “repeat the hymn again” to remind us to come back for a second jab.
David Davies
Fovant, Wiltshire
• Is Marcus Rashford innately more able than Boris Johnson or did he just have the benefit of better schooling?
Ian Ashcroft
Wilmslow, Cheshire
• Re old copies of the Guardian (Letters, 8 January), our original 1977 Guide to San Serriffe has turned up! We are now planning the holiday of a lifetime for when normality returns.
Dave and Jocelyn Hanson
Hull
