Patrick Wintour begins his excellent article (Into the void: how Trump killed international law, 25 December) with a quotation from Antonio Gramsci: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born.” This idea is frequently attributed to Gramsci but surely, as a critical sociologist, he must have been aware of Matthew Arnold’s lines: “Wandering between two worlds, one dead / The other powerless to be born…”
Hugh Macmillan
Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire
• Before renaming the city of Washington as Trumpton (Letters, 23 December), the US president ought to hear the 1985 song Trumpton Riots by Half Man Half Biscuit. It warns of the possibility of Chippy Minton’s socialists storming the market square and assassinating an autocratic authority figure.
Jim Hatley
Brighton, East Sussex
• There’s a lovely example of what I believe to be a spoof sign (‘Slightly haunted but manageable’: new signs cause confusion – and delight – in Christchurch, 22 December) in Stamford, though I hope it’s genuine: “On this site Sept. 5, 1782 nothing happened.”
Alan Apperley
Cannock, Staffordshire
• Re one stage of life being not having seen any of the best TV shows of 2025 (Letters, 23 December), there is a further stage – being unable to remember whether you’ve seen them.
Ian Harley
Fair Oak, Hampshire
• You say Nigel Farage’s victims were “on the wrong end of racist or antisemitic abuse” (‘Of course he abused pupils’: ex-Dulwich teacher speaks out about Farage racism claims, 28 December). Is there a right end?
Rhoda Koenig
London
• Kemi Badenoch was the only party leader to mention the birth of Christ in her Christmas message. Have the Tories found a saviour?
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
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