Fracking under the national parks (Report, 17 December); at long last, a capitalistic solution to these non-profit generating areas in, on the whole, rather distant parts of the country with few voters.
John Bailey
St Albans, Hertfordshire
• There’s nothing new in garden plants flowering at this time of year (Letters, passim). Naturalist Richard Kearton celebrated the close of the 19th century and opening of the 20th by taking a photograph – as the bell of the local church struck midnight – of a clump of primroses in bloom from his Caterham garden.
John Bevis
London
• So a state asset is sold to a private individual and a few years later, without any effort on the part of that individual to improve the asset, it is sold on for 2,400 times its cost. The sale of Thatcher’s dispatch box for £242,500 (Report, 16 December) is a fitting tribute to her era.
John Illingworth
Bradford
• A silver-plated rack goes a bit beyond the traditional paper clips and pencils surely. Thatcher Thatcher stationery snatcher?
Ron Burns
Poole, Dorset
• Funny how at least 15 Beatles song titles can come together in a brief article (Science papers – another cite of Bob Dylan, 16 December). Don’t ask me why but for no one to notice is something else!
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
• Re the hottest 16 December temperature recorded in “Aber, Gwynedd” (Report, 16 December). Bit like saying it occurred in Town, south-east England.
Dr Anthony Evans
Ludchurch, Pembrokeshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
