The most appropriate and effective way of recognising some of the errors in awarding the football World Cup to Qatar (Editorial, 3 October) would be to encourage players to lower their heads for a short period after the national anthems. This quiet message would reflect the significant loss of life during construction work in the years leading up to the finals.
John Cooper
London
• Ron Poole-Dayan says: “We consider adoption [to be] a form of volunteering. It is not a way to become parents” (‘We are expected to be OK with not having children’: how gay parenthood through surrogacy became a battleground, 1 October). He could not be more wrong. Adopting a child has nothing to do with volunteering and everything to do with becoming a parent.
Pam Barnsley
East Meon, Hampshire
• Quite rightly, an emphasis has been placed on Covid deaths, but is it not about time we also had an inquiry into the excess deaths caused by successive Conservative governments (Over 330,000 excess deaths in Great Britain linked to austerity, finds study, 5 October)?
Kathleen O’Neill
Hayling Island, Hampshire
• Re the use of “old age” as a cause of death on the certificate (Letters, 3 October), I am 98 years old and when I die I hope that it will say: “Heart termination.”
Elizabeth Howells
Church Lawford, Warwickshire
• I can’t help but notice that the 45p U-turned tax rate is an anagram of P45.
Tim Harrison
Surbiton, London
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