Grouse moors are about more than shooting (Grouse-shooting fan Botham is gunning for Packham, 13 August). Here in Upper Calderdale, the run-off from grouse moors has helped to flood our valley, our businesses and our homes. It happened in 2012, it happened last Boxing Day, and it will happen again unless there are changes in upland management. If you’re happy to say goodbye to communities like ours, back Botham. If you want to support ordinary people rather than communities of grouse-shooters, back Chris Packham.
Alison Leonard
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
• History does not relate whether Trotsky was an avid Guardian reader (Letters, 15 August), though his personal secretary Evgenia Shelepina did have an affair with the Guardian’s Russian correspondent Arthur Ransome before their elopement and eventual marriage in England.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
• I’m not sure if there is evidence that Trotsky read the Guardian, but CLR James certainly wrote cricket reports for the Manchester Guardian in the 1930s. James went on to write the classic book on cricket, Beyond a Boundary, but he was also a leading Trotskyist who met and corresponded with Trotsky. Expect a retrospective reference of the paper to Labour’s compliance unit.
Keith Flett
London
• It is interesting to note that in the double-page picture of the Bristol international balloon fiesta (15 August), there are two carrying the logo “Cameron Balloons”. Now that he is no longer PM it is good to see that all that hot air is not going to waste.
Paul Rothwell
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire
• Like Jennifer Henley (Letters, 15 August) I was surprised to see a reference to a “useless husband” failing to book a holiday but not because the Guardian printed it. Rather I was more concerned that a Guardian-reading woman believed it was her husband’s job; I don’t think my husband has ever been the one to initiate such a booking.
Maureen Panton
Malvern, Worcestershire
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