Gosh! How clever we have all become. Fifty years ago, only the top 2% of the population went to university and about 10% of them got firsts, so 0.2% of the population. Now, 30% go to uni, and 25% of them get firsts (Number of UK degree students receiving firsts soars, theguardian.com, 20 July), making 7.5% of the population. The universities say there is no grade inflation so we must be more than 30 times cleverer! Impressive or what?
Rob Symonds
Birmingham
• How refreshing, considering the Guardian’s stance on attitudes at the BBC, to find that of the 13 saints in your Wordsearch grid (20 July), just one is female, and that AnneMarie Ciccarella is “a fast-talking 57-year-old brunette” (The long read, 18 July). Do you need to know my hair colour to print this?
Alison Robinson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire
• Quite agree with John Smurthwaite re the equerry and the aardvark (Letters, 21 July) but he omitted to say the aardvark would be eating a rambutan.
Jan Church
Winchester, Hampshire
• “Konta forced to defend Britishness” (19 July) reminds me of talking to a French woman about Wimbledon in 1985. I commented that it was good to see a French player (Yannick Noah) through to the third round. Her dismissive retort of “Il n’est pas un vrai Francais” brought the conversation to an abrupt end.
Sue Wallace
Thame, Oxfordshire
• Giant hogweed (Plantwatch, 17 July) may be an invader but it has an enemy here: sheep. The Danes were using sheep in the 1990s, perhaps earlier, and now the Scots too, using blackfaced ones (the Scots believe the pigmentation protects them from the poison). Question: why does this information take so long to cross the North Sea? Now I’d like to find some creature who enjoys Japanese knotweed.
Kavya Hughes
London
• Suffolk has had a “Don’t be a Tosser” campaign for the past two years. Where have you been, Norfolk? (Letters, 20 July)
Rex Ide
Ipswich
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