I think Russell Brand is wrong about tickling (Is tickling children a consent issue?, G2, 4 February). If this form of communication were cultivated from childhood, it would mean that many contentious issues could be settled amicably. Fist fights and bombings would become a thing of the past. And indeed, whoever eventually brings out a guide to tickling would deserve to be honoured with a Nobel prize for a significant contribution to world peace – and laughter.
Meirion Bowen
London
• I imagine Polly Toynbee’s assertion that “We have lived 74 years of boring peace on our shores” (Dunkirk spirit won’t see us through no-deal deprivation, 5 February) will come as something of a surprise to the inhabitants of Northern Ireland.
Alan Eustace
St Cross College, Oxford
• Qashqai? Isn’t that Arlene Foster’s pet name for the prime minister (Minister under fire as secret £80m Nissan deal revealed, 5 February)?
Joe Thornberry
Lancaster
• I presume that if the rapist had been white, Liam Neeson would have applied the cosh to his own head (Neeson in race row following comments about rape of friend, 5 February).
Vani Borooah
Belfast
• Everybody knows that crows say “caw, caw” and rooks say “kah, kah”. But neither of them talks much in winter, so it’s easy to get confused (Letters, 5 February).
Isabella Stone
Sheffield
• I don’t know much about crows and rooks, but the difference between a stoat and a weasel is that a weasel is weaselly distinguished and a stoat is stoatally different.
Geraldine Blake
Worthing
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