On football past and present (Letters, 7 March), one particularly unpleasant feature of today’s game is the compulsive spitting. Watching Match of the Day now is to observe a spitfest. Footballers never used to spit all the time. The players of other sports (like rugby) don’t do it. Nor do the women players. So when, and why, did football become a spittle competition?
Tony Wright
Birmingham
• Lorenzo Marsili writes that the flat tax would benefit “the richest households” in Italy (Letters, 6 March). This is unlikely. Working in Rome for 14 years taught me that the rich pay no tax, so 10% is better than nothing.
Dr John Doherty
Vienna, Austria
• Whether or not the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal (Report, 7 March) was sanctioned by Russia, it should be noted that extrajudicial targeted killing by drone on foreign soil is common particularly by the US, but also by the UK.
Ted Watson
Brighton
• When I was a student nurse we learned the mnemonic “On Old Olympus’ Towering Top A Fin And German Viewed Some Hops” (Letters, 7 March). Helpful for remembering the cranial nerves – except that there are so many repeated letters that I couldn’t sort out my olfactory from my oculomotor.
Joan Friend
Oldham
• Shock! Horror! Why no mention of the pie shop in Lochinver on the west coast of Scotland (More than a filling, G2, 7 March)? And I’m from Wigan.
Barbara Gray
Coldstream, Berwickshire
• Re “thaw damages mains” (Report, 7 March), it is the freeze that damages mains; the thaw reveals it.
Bob Gough
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
