A Conservative ex-minister faces a string of allegations including 2,000 sexual texts to two young women that finally did for his ministerial career. Yet the parliamentary standards watchdog has cleared him of wrongdoing: it is “not persuaded that [the exchanges] caused significant damage to the reputation of the House of Commons” (Report, 9 September). Has its reputation really sunk that low?
Anne McLaren
Liverpool
• Really enjoyed Steve Morgan’s article (The Upside: In this English town, a bold plan to banish loneliness and misery is afoot, 11 September). Isolation and loneliness can be a real issue in rural areas compounded by physical isolation. At the Arthur Rank Centre we have produced a toolkit on our website to help churches address this issue in their communities.
Rev Elizabeth Clark
National rural officer, Methodist and United Reformed Churches
• I grew up in Bristol, and Adrian Chiles’s article (The Black Country accent on the big screen? What a boster!, G2, 12 September) reminds me of an example of a similar Bristol syntax I heard of many years ago: “Her baint calling we; us don’t belong to she.” Another example, heard from a woman trying on a hat in British Home Stores, to another woman: “Ow do ee like ee on oi?”
Mary McKeown
Biddenham, Bedfordshire
• I’ve tried using “Call me Ishmael” in Starbucks, but no one gets the allusion – or knows how to spell it (Letters, 12 September).
Martin Lamb
Sheffield
• I spent last weekend in my overgrown garden. I am determined to take back control of my borders.
Martin Brassington
Winster, Matlock, Derbyshire
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