Part 1 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, for which the Tories and the Lib Dems were equally responsible, was arguably the worst piece of legislation in the coalition years, and not just for family law (Letters, 28 December). Social welfare law was almost destroyed too. It is ironic that but for a tied vote in the Lords, the government would have been forced to modify its legal aid domestic violence policy. I agree that the justice select committee report was woefully uncritical. Even now the government refuses to review this shocking mistake.
Willy Bach
Labour shadow justice minister in the Lords 2010- 12, House of Lords
• I have a great deal of sympathy with your new reader Don Abbey and his bafflement as to why your TV listings only begin at 6pm (Letters, 27 December). He will soon learn that your readers have no capacity to watch daytime TV due to the demands of your supposedly “Quick Crossword”, which regularly takes up to eight man hours to complete. Watching Homes under the Hammer is something of a rare treat.
Jane Moth
Snettisham, Norfolk
• Kit Hill asks if Trump’s enthusiasm for a nuclear arsenal makes him a terrorist (Letters, 28 December)? Has he forgotten the standard definition of a terrorist: someone with a bomb but without an air force?
George Schlesinger
Durham
• Why is there only one Competition and Markets Authority (Letters, 28 December)? The same reason there’s only one word for thesaurus.
Judith Flanders
London
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