Your country diary about a roadkill buzzard and its feathers (25 September) reminded me of the time my father, a blind poultry farmer who lived near the sea, fired his airgun up in the air to scare off gulls from the chicken feed. To his horror, he actually shot and killed a gull. So that it didn’t die in vain, he tied the tail feathers to a bamboo cane and it became an excellent cobweb-removing brush. He never liked things to go to waste.
Jeanne Felmingham
Grove, Oxfordshire
• Dominic Raab was known as “five Is” by his officials, says Marina Hyde (3 September). After Keir Starmer’s speech to the Labour conference, I fear he may become known as “three Us”: uninspiring, unpopular and unelectable.
Mike Pender
Cardiff
• When I was a student at Manchester University in the early 70s, nobody used the term “uni” (Letters, 29 September). However, at Göttingen University in 1973 the term “uni” was used all the time.
Caroline Ewans
London
• In order to help politicians understand the immense pressures on general practice (Letters, 28 September), I suggest that everyone who works in a GP surgery writes to their MP and requests a face-to-face meeting with them.
Dr Graham Box
Hurley, Berkshire
• I’m not sure I’d want to fit into the green satin pair of jeans I had at 21 (Letters, 29 September). They were much loved, but so tight that sitting down was a problem. Today’s stretchy jeans are a godsend.
Matilda Simon
Greenfield, Greater Manchester
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
.png?w=600)
