Your report (UK launches emergency phone alerts public warning system, 19 March) was received with cynicism in this household. In much of our village, including our house, there is no mobile signal at all. In the rest of the village it is weak. Our phones are only switched on when we go somewhere where there is a signal. I suppose we are out of touch. Like the government.
Peter Stevens
Farley, Wiltshire
• In answer to Peter Stewart (Letters, 17 March), never in 70 years have I heard “spaded” used in any context, including when I helped build the M25 – using a shovel. Loose material is shovelled, hard material dug with a spade, not a shovel, unless you wish to break the blade or your back.
Dave Young
St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex
• The best T-shirt slogan (Letters, 17 March) I ever saw was: “Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.” In response to my enthusiasm, a few days later the wearer gave me an A3 photocopy they’d done at their local library.
Dr Jane Frances
Cambridge
• Kwasi Kwarteng says Boris Johnson is a “hugely intelligent, sensitive, brilliant person” (Report, 19 March). Are there two Boris Johnsons then?
Peter Dewar
Bromley, London
• With Partygate back in the news, I’m reminded of a comment passed on to me by a Greek taxi driver: “Politicians are like babies’ nappies. Both should be changed frequently, and for the same reason.”
Alan Gray
Brighton, East Sussex
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