Could the rise in car accidents involving pedestrians be explained in part by the rise in mobile phone usage (‘He was fast … he ran you right over’: what it’s like to get hit by an SUV, 22 November)? As a cyclist, I frequently use shared paths, and I am amazed by how many people walk around glued to their phones, unaware of what is happening around them.
Mike McMorran
Bournemouth, Dorset
• Martin Kettle refers to Scotland’s “often brutal social media culture” (The supreme court’s batting away of Indyref2 leaves Sturgeon more isolated than ever, 23 November). As opposed to England’s prevailingly gentle social media culture, would that be? Jings, that “headstrong and reckless” Scottish cyberworld sounds awfy scary – thank goodness it stops at the border.
Nancy Graham
Belfast
• Michael Parrish wants £500,000 per head for a place in his nuclear bunker (‘When you hear the four-minute warning’ … Whatever happened to Britain’s nuclear bunkers?, 24 November). Can he please tell us where he is going to keep this money, and why he thinks it will be worth more than, say, cowrie shells or simple barter when he emerges as king of Essex after 10 to 20 years?
Michael Robinson
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
• Your article about the late “Sir Alfred”, who spent nearly 20 years at Charles de Gaulle airport (‘The Terminal Man’ lived in a Paris airport for 18 years. I’ll never forget the weeks I spent with him, 23 November), reminded me that the original Guardian article about him (which I still have) inspired me to send him a pair of socks. I wonder if he ever received them?
Shirley Hetherington
Great Ayton, North Yorkshire
• Surely if you have to explain their meanings, the contenders for “word of the year” should be ruled out of the running (Oxford word of the year to face its first public vote, 21 November).
Derek Schofield
Wistaston, Cheshire
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