I enjoyed your piece on the rise of Multicultural London English (Pass notes, 14 June), but felt that one serious omission from the list of translations was “bare”, meaning “many” or “lots of”. Before I retired as a London secondary school headteacher a few years ago, a student rushed up to me one lunchtime and said, “Sir, Sir, bare people are fighting in the park.” The look she gave me when I asked why they weren’t wearing any clothes was a wonder to behold.
Jeremy Waxman
Canterbury
• Katy Balls argues that Boris Johnson’s promise of no border in the Irish Sea “quickly proved to be wide of the mark” (This battle is not about the EU or even Northern Ireland – it’s Johnson fighting his own MPs, 13 June). No, Katy. To anyone who was paying attention it was always an obvious lie.
Richard Daugherty
Mumbles, Swansea
