Anna Macey might be right to assert that “the main reason why such sexism is still so widespread is that no schoolgirl has ever challenged her school in court about this” (Let girls wear the trousers, 3 November), but as I note in the final chapter of my book Wearing the Trousers: Fashion, Freedom and the Rise of the Modern Woman, in 1999 the mother of a 14-year-old Tyne and Wear schoolgirl successfully took her daughter’s case to the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Don Chapman
Eynsham, Oxfordshire
• You report that only about half of the UK’s fixed speed cameras are on and active (4 November). I think you’ll find that 52% is a clear majority expressing the settled position of being-on-ness. Get over it and start backing Britain.
Carola Groom
Oldham
• Paula Cocozza (Give ’em both barrels, G2, 2 November) found Lord Wharncliffe to have four barrels to his name. He’s not perhaps all that rare. Richard Drax MP is really Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax. Both are outgunned by the third (and last) Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (died 1889), who had five barrels: Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville.
George Baugh
Shrewsbury
• After reading Giles Fraser’s piece about Thought for the Day (1 November) and the responses to it (Letters, 2 November), I would like to draw readers’ attention to the three daily broadcasts (totalling about 18 minutes) of secular liturgy otherwise known as the shipping forecast.
Steve Elliot
London
• Unlike Keith Flett (Letters, 1 November) the archetypal Guardian reader surely reads but rarely writes letters: eg, me.
Hugh Gibbons
Bracknell, Berkshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
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