The government/BBC wrangle continues (Letters, 28 August). If there are people over 75 who struggle to pay the TV licence fee of £154.50 then as a nation we should be ashamed. Their ability to do so should not depend on what amounts to welfare but on a decent pension. So, increase their pension. It really is “as simple as that”.
Dr Gerald Wallen
Exeter
• Re the Pass notes about HELCH (28 August), does anyone else remember the graffiti on a wall in Leighton Road, Kentish Town, north London, that read “My karma has run over your dogma”?
Helen Keats
Shorwell, Isle of Wight
• On the subject of regional pride (Adrian Chiles, 29 August), I’m reminded of the story of responses to the question “Which is England’s second city?” The Mancunian says, “Manchester”, the Brummie says “Birmingham”, whereas the Scouser says “London”. Says it all, really.
Nick Broadhead
Liverpool
• My grandma in Bloxwich – in the Black Country – said there was enough “blue sky to make a sailor’s shirt”. I’d never thought where his trousers would come from till now (Letters, 28 August).
David Cockayne
Lymm, Cheshire
• Seen on a roundabout in St Albans, on the back of one of those big, boxy mobility minibuses: “No old ladies are left in this bus overnight” (Letters, 26 August).
Peter Lowthian
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
• Whether men bathed naked in Jane Austen’s time is debatable (Shortcuts, 28 August), but we can be certain that they didn’t swim the front crawl, which had yet to be invented.
Michael Barber
London
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