You report Ukip’s assertion that profits from Mike Read’s Calypso single were to be donated to the Red Cross “for their Ebola outreach programme” (Report, 23 October). It’s worth mentioning that the Red Cross responded by saying it cannot accept donations from party political sources, and that its job is to help precisely those that Mike Read and Ukip “negatively refer to”. Oh, and it doesn’t have an Ebola outreach programme. And before the single was withdrawn, it was made clear that all proceeds from sales were for Ukip party funds.
Dan Adler
Farnham, Surrey
• Jonathan Watts reports from Rio de Janeiro that 402 square kilometres – “more than six times the area of the island of Manhattan” – of the Brazilian Amazon was cleared in September (Report, 20 October). Being English and reading my English newspaper in England this is of limited value. How many Isles of Wight is that?
Chas Moore
Wickford, Essex
• I read with interest the funeral directors’ comments about people taking out their own penny insurance policies to pay for their funeral (Return of the pauper’s funeral, G2, 21 October). My mother had told us we would not have to bear the expense of her funeral as she had two life insurance policies, which included one taken out by her mother in 1924. She died 10 years ago aged 93, and her funeral cost us around £3,500; the insurance policies paid out £80 and £120 respectively. So much for prudent planning.
Mabel Taylor
Knutsford, Cheshire
• I told my stepmother, a dressmaker, and a very good one, who was very fussy about her appearance, that I belonged to a profession that didn’t judge people by the way they dress (Why do academics dress so badly, 21 October). “Well, they ought to,” she snapped back.
Dr Roger Leitch
Bath
• Surely it must be the Selfiescene (Letters, passim)?
Roger Walker
Bradford
