Martin Kettle’s disquiet about weather forecasting (Let’s scrape the hyperbole off the weather forecasts, 19 January) prompts the question of why the TV weather map shows the whole of the island of Ireland but ostentatiously omits any reference, visually or orally, to the situation in the Republic. I have always assumed that this was in order to placate Ulster Unionists who fear that an all-Irish weather forecast would be a first step towards reunification. Why was this vital issue not resolved in the Good Friday agreement?
Chris Haskins
House of Lords
• To say this year or that year is the warmest on record is deceptive (Report, 17 January). Instrument records began about 1850, but measurements using proxies such as ice cores have been successfully made covering the past 6bn years of the Earth’s existence. For example Christopher Scotese, professor of geology at the University of Texas, shows in his analysis using such proxies that the Earth’s temperature and carbon dioxide levels have been much higher than today for 80% of the past 6bn years.
Terri Jackson
Founder of energy and climate group at the Institute of Physics
• I have to say how much I have been enjoying finding out the backstories of my favourite Doonesbury characters in the Doonesbury Classic cartoon strips in G2. It will be quite a jolt when Trudeau eventually brings us up to date with current events in Doonesbury World.
Jill Carr
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
• Since my letter (January 19) asking if my daughter (an unpaid intern in Geneva) is now earning nothing plus 30%, I’ve been told – in no uncertain terms – that she is now earning nothing minus 30%.
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• I don’t care whether the HP sauce label is in French or English (letters passim), or what its ingredients are, as long as no one calls it “haitch pee”.
Jane Jones
Chester
