The Rees-Moggs use a typewriter? Surely their secretary uses a goose quill pen

‘I had assumed that Jacob Rees-Mogg’s secretary, one R Cratchit, Esq, used a quill pen.’ Photograph: Alamy

However expected, Jane Dodds’ byelection victory in Brecon and Radnorshire is a nail in the coffin of the Johnson government. Let us hope that opposition parties and liberal-minded Tory MPs will use the summer wisely to forge a united front capable of derailing the Johnson juggernaut and frustrating Farage’s so negative purposes.
Peter Chapman
Ashwell, Hertfordshire

• Hugh Muir did indeed raise some interesting issues about the honours system being rooted in empire (Letters, 2 August). My staunchly republican husband told our children that the MBE I received in 2002 for work with rough sleepers stood for My Bloody Effort. They fully understood why I didn’t get the OBE (Other Bugger’s Effort).
Helen Keats MBE
Rough sleeping adviser, Kingston, Isle of Wight

• I learn from my local paper that Robin Walker “previously served as a minister in the Department for Exciting the European Union”. Could we hear more about this department so that we can all join in?
Elizabeth Dunnett
Malvern, Worcestershire

• Re Susan Seager’s comments on I Am Nicola (Letters, 30 July), I agree that Adam had serious vulnerabilities and issues that needed help. My sympathies dried up though on observing that he did sod all around the house and seemed to do no food shopping. Geez. I would have dropped him like a hot potato.
Pam Connellan
Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire

• Peter C Stone (Letters, 2 August) suggests that the Rees-Moggs might still use a typewriter. I had rather assumed that the Rt Hon J Rees-Mogg’s secretary, one R Cratchit, Esq, still used a goose quill pen.
Peter L Hepworth, Esq
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

• A more pressing question (Letters, 2 August) about Boris Johnson’s “prime minister” jacket is: how long will he need it?
Toby Wood
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

• If I had made my clothes last for ever I’d still be wearing flares and flowered shirts at age 84 (G2, 1 August).
Anthony Burton
Stroud, Gloucestershire

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition