Isn’t describing Alastair Campbell as “white, centrist, Scottish” a tad inaccurate (The G2 interview, 29 August)? Wouldn’t a “bluff, hectoring chap from Keighley” or “Yorkshireman” be more accurate? Parents aside, perhaps an ability to play the bagpipes mysteriously transforms him into a Scot.
Delwyn Swingewood
Langho, Lancashire
• I was aware that wealth and power can open doors, but until Richard Caring decided on a garden makeover I didn’t realise it closed roads too (Billionaire closes main road in South Kensington for gardening work. 27 August).
Les Bright
Exeter
• Last week, my wife, who is approaching 80, received a two-page letter from the DWP telling her that her state pension will be increased by 25p a week. Many thanks. This is just what we need in these days of high inflation.
Dr Bryan Sowerby
Coventry
• There’s only one answer to the letter headlined “Hen harrier recovery has been helped by shooting estates and gamekeepers” (29 August). And that is: “Pull the other one – it’s got bells on.”
Rosemary Gill
Salisbury
• There are also plenty of “coastal grandmothers” in Milford on Sea who are right on trend (Letters, 28 August), but unfortunately I’m not sure many are Guardian readers.
Fran Turner
Milford on Sea, Hampshire
• When the poet laureate John Betjeman wrote In Westminster Abbey, he said Britain was known for “democracy and proper drains”. Is this still true?
Mary Dixon
Eltham, London
