Well done the 45 directors of social services who spoke up for adult social services (Letters, 18 January). But why has the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, which represents current directors of social services, been so reluctant to speak up when their counterparts in the NHS have been so vocal?
Blair McPherson
(Former director of community services), Sheffield
• For Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russian sex workers are “the best in the world” to begin to be believed (Report, 18 January), he would have had to have had sex with a ginormous number of prostitutes in every other country as well as his own. This hyperbole concerning his alleged manly prowess surely casts doubt on all his other claims.
Michael Horovitz
Poetry Olympics, London
• In answer to Tony Burson (Letters, 21 January), there are strictly only two countries in the world with the definite article in their names: The Gambia and The Bahamas. The Gambia was originally named after the River Gambia, and the Portuguese kept the definite article. Independence came in 1965, only a year after Zambia, which had previously been known as Northern Rhodesia. There was some concern that the two countries might be confused, and The Gambia decided to hang on to the definite article. But “the Lebanon”, “the Ukraine” – not really.
Professor Michael Walling
Enfield, Middlesex
• There is in the Black Country a place called Lye, but invariably it’s referred to as “the Lye”.
Ruth Rhoden
Kidderminster, Worcestershire
• One evening, while camping on honeymoon in Africa, our culinary options were reduced to a packet of Weetabix and a tin of tomatoes (Letters, 21 January). It’s not a combination we have chosen to repeat in the subsequent 37 years of married life.
Caroline Alexander
Sevenoaks, Kent
• How about “And” as a starter, as in Jerusalem (Letters, 21 January)? The problem then is to discover the identity of the owner of “those feet”.
Dr Hyla Holden
Bath
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