Robert Kitson rightly praises Billy Vunipola for his Man of the Match performance for England against Ireland and for lasting 80 minutes (Sport, 29 February). However, the ball was actually in play for a total of only 37 minutes – 18 minutes in the first half and 19 minutes in the second – because of the rules and referees of rugby union. Is it not time that the authorities put more emphasis on keeping the game flowing rather than allowing tedious delays at scrums, lineouts and penalty kicks?
Tony Hartigan
Otley, West Yorkshire
• Whenever comment is made about the net migration figures, dissenters fall back on the maxim that immigration brings benefit to our land (Report, 26 February). If that is so, how high does the net migration figure have to increase before they cease to deploy the argument? Currently that figure is in the region of one third of a million. What happens if it goes to half a million, three quarters, one million, two? Is there a point in dissenters’ thinking when the benefit stops?
Edward Thomas
Eastbourne, East Sussex
• Re your Trident march letters (1 March): I can add that I marched from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square with a poster on my backpack saying “Thanks Steve Bell!” with your Steve’s Friday cartoon stuck on it. It was remarked on. I certainly thought that the Trafalgar Square crowd looked larger than when I had assembled there in 1958.
Anna Cheetham
Leicester
• “Rural residents fight plans for masts as high as Shard” (1 March): I think us up north would have liked a comparison of the telecom masts with Blackpool Tower as it’s difficult to imagine them in comparison with heights in London.
Dorothy Holman
Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
• How do roosting starlings exchange information on feeding areas (Birds of a feather photograph, 1 March)? Twitter, perhaps?
Heather Greenwood
Northampton
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