Surely there’s an easy way to strip the controversy and unfairness from the citizenship test (Can you pull your weight in a pub quiz? Congratulations – you’re welcome in the UK!, 9 May). Simply validate the test by putting it to a random sample of, say, 2,000 UK nationals and then use the average or median score as the pass mark. Given the obscurity of many of the questions, the suspicion is, of course, that the actual pass mark set by the Home Office is far higher than would be achieved by most Brits.
Dr Stephen Benyunes
London
• I can ignore “ums and errs” (I thought my umming and erring made for better radio. I was wrong, 10 May) but I frequently scream at the incessant use of “ like”, which is interspersed with alarming frequency in many (younger) persons’ delivery, and “you know”, which seems to be a favourite filler for politicians when defending government policy. Yours, like, you know.
Sharman Finlay
Portrush, County Antrim
• I grew up in a household of Siamese cats, and one was named Figaro just so that my dad could go into the evening garden and sing the chorus to call the cat in (Letters, 10 May). Being a very vocal Siamese, he often joined in.
Sally Smith
Redruth, Cornwall
• When the letterbox is at the bottom of the door, how should a postperson deliver an envelope marked “Do not bend” (Letters, 11 May)?
David Hitchin
Seaford, East Sussex
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