“The science fraud squad” (The long read, 1 February) perhaps needs to look out not just for published research studies that offer conclusions based on invented or edited data but also for those that are not published because the results fail to support the idea, product or process that the researchers (or their commercial sponsors) were hoping for; thereby nurturing a bias towards their favoured conclusion by concealing contrary evidence. That latter form of truth-bending may be just as frequent as the former, and often more deliberate.
Professor Derek Rowntree
Banbury, Oxfordshire
• The phrase “slubbing out the dykes” used by Mark Cocker (Country Diary, 7 February) brought back memories of a Norfolk childhood. In the days before JCBs, slubbing involved using a didle – a zinc bowl on a long wooden handle – to clear the mud and debris, and keep the waterways open. Heavy work but a good excuse for a mud fight!
Mary Stiff
Westwood, Devon
• Why doesn’t John Bailey (Letters, 6 February) take his grandson round St Albans market (Wednesdays and Saturdays)? There are plenty of fresh lychees – a treat, and not just for small boys.
Maggie Johnston
St Albans, Hertfordshire
• I note that Paul Nuttall’s Ukip makeover (Nuttall aims for moderate image as Ukip targets Stoke, 8 February) involves a beard and dressing in tweeds to appear like a true country gent. Presumably he has in mind the job of farm manager vacated by Rob Titchener after his recent departure from The Archers.
Keith Flett
London
• We in “the north” are bemused at your description, in a picture caption, of the Edinburgh to Inverness train “battl[ing] through snow” (Slowmobile, 8 February). Where’s the snow plough? The window-high drifts? What you have in the photograph is a light dusting or, as they say in the Scots vernacular, “a wee drop”.
Angus MacIntosh
Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire
• I cut my hand wiping dried Weetabix from the kitchen table (Letters, 8 February); I thought it a harmless crumb.
Frank Haines
Devoran, Cornwall
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