The HMRC director general of enforcement and compliance claims, with obvious pride, that HMRC “have brought in more than £2bn in additional revenues from the richest 500,000 taxpayers over the last six years” (Letters, 15 April). For those less sad than I am, who haven’t done the sums, that works out at £666 a person each year. I’d get out more if only I could afford it, but it’s good to know that HMRC is on the case.
Alan Healey
Bishops Castle, Shropshire
• Ian Jack’s unbuttoning of the Montague Burton story (16 April) reminded me of his other legacy to us, well-known at one time in Jewish circles. Before the film transformed its meaning, the phrase “the full monty” meant the full Burton three-piece suit, not just the jacket and trousers, but jacket, waistcoat and trousers. Anyone who bought that had ‘the full Monty’ and could be proud of it.
Jacqueline Sarsby
Uley, Gloucestershire
• It is delightful to see Kate Middleton joining in that game of cricket with the inner-city kids in India (Howzat!, 11 April), but I wonder whether she might be persuaded to do the same for the inner-city kids of my county? This season, for the first time in living memory, there is not one professional county cricketer from either Southampton, Portsmouth, or the coastal towns in-between along the M27. Neither is there one club side from the area in the top division of the Southern League. Inner-city cricket might be flourishing among the poorer classes in India, but it’s in serious decline here.
Dr Dave Allen
Hon Archivist, Hampshire Cricket
• I note that Norwegian television is presenting a live broadcast of the sea off the Norwegian coast (Report, 16 April). Perhaps British television could do the same thing, with cameras looking across the sea from the White Cliffs of Dover. It could be transmitted on a dedicated TV channel called the English Channel.
Karl Sabbagh
Bloxham, Oxfordshire
• Recent letters brought to mind a message on a noticeboard at Victoria Station in London: “Northern Line closed due to leaves on the line. Passengers for Waterloo are advised to go to Charing Cross and swim across the Thames.”
Jenny Duncan
Beaminster, Dorset
