On Monday, the same day that the government was refusing to commit to a temporary extra £1,000 a year for recipients of universal credit, Dido Harding and David Williams, permanent secretary at the health department, confirmed that the same government has been paying £1,000 a day in fees to up to 900 test-and-trace consultants from Deloitte. I assume they subscribe to Jonathan Sumption’s view that some lives are less valuable than others.
Pete Rosser
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
• Is it possible that the compiler of Wordsearch (18 January) – “Can you find 14 breakfast items in the grid?” – is inadvertently revealing their southern softie credentials? The grid includes such effete items as bagel, prunes, pancake and croissant, but no sign of the real breakfast stalwarts of sausage, mushroom, tomato, or even toast, never mind black pudding. That’s more like it – a full English; pass the brown sauce!
David Evans
Market Harborough, Leicestershire
• One day in January 1963, I recall returning home from work to find my hot water bottle, left in bed under the sheet, blankets and eiderdown, had frozen (Letters, 20 January).
Elizabeth Dunnett
Malvern, Worcestershire
• During the winter of 1947, my mother, having managed to acquire some eggs during rationing, found they’d frozen solid inside the pantry.
William Burgess
Guiseley, West Yorkshire
• I never knew it was called goosegrass (Country diary, 20 January). It was always known as sticky willies where I was brought up in the central belt of Scotland.
Margaret Vandecasteele
Wick, Caithness
