Gwyn Topham’s excellent analysis (P&O Ferries is not the first in UK waters to hire low-cost workers, 30 March) rightly points out the government’s decision to exempt ferries from national minimum wage rules in October 2020. Yet another case of Britannia waiving the rules rather than ruling the waves.
Andrew Linington
Clevedon, Somerset
• Re women working on farms (Letters, 29 March), I now possess a silver medal won by my 18-year-old aunt Gertie Cooper in a ploughing match (with a horse plough) at Collingham, Nottinghamshire, in 1919. So many men had gone to war and not come back that women could, and did, plough. She was tiny, but the horses respected her.
Linda Marriott
Lincoln
• Zoe Williams’ lovely article (28 March) made me think about what my children call me. One daughter, living in the south of England, calls me Mum. To another, living in Spain, I’m Mummy; another daughter who never left the north would never dream of anything other than Mam. Our son, living in Canada, veers between them all, but hasn’t yet used Mom.
Liz Strutt
Rottingdean, East Sussex
• I was Mummy to my children until their teenage years, when I became Mum. Now I am Mum to the sons and Mama to the daughters. So when I email the four of them together I sign myself as M.
Betty Clarke
Malvern, Worcestershire
• Will MPs be allowed to claim their partygate fines on expenses like everything else?
Derek McMillan
Durrington, West Sussex
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