Why is the government giving heavy goods vehicles a free ride for a year, with its “12-month vehicle tax holiday” (Report 20 May), when they cause such huge road damage to our crumbling road system (The pothole puzzle: the bumpy ride to fixing Britain’s broken roads, 23 May)? A 44-tonne HGV, the industry standard, is 100,000 times more damaging to road surfaces than a Ford Focus.
Philippa Edmunds
East Twickenham, London
• Within five years, Sunderland have moved from League One to seventh place in the Premier League with a place in Europe; they got two columns in Monday’s paper. West Ham got three pages, Manchester City two, and Liverpool and Arsenal one each. Manchester United got three columns, and Tottenham got eight. Speaking as a Wearsider, this looks like a bit of big-boy bias.
Bob Powley
Leeds
• Before everyone rushes to buy tomato timers to help them with their work, as advocated by Zahra Onsori (The one change that worked, 25 May), could I suggest an alternative? I have long had a clockwork orange timer which simultaneously manages to be both menacing and fun.
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife
• With all the negative stuff coming out of the US, how heartwarming it was to read your Experience column (We found a baby on the subway – now he’s our 26-year-old son, 22 May). It brought tears to my eyes, thinking that there is good in the world, despite everything.
Barbara Thompson
Sheffield
• So, Rachel Reeves is urging ministers to buy British when procuring steel, energy and AI, among other things (Report, 25 May). Could she start by telling Palantir to get lost?
Steve Boulding
Stanwardine, Shropshire
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