Potholes are simply the most visible sign of the crisis in council funding (How have I changed in 2023? I have become an avid pothole activist, 11 January). Local roads account for 98% of the network and carry two-thirds of traffic, but receive a tiny fraction of what is spent on major roads. Our social care, our safeguarding of vulnerable children and adults, our schools, our youth clubs, our affordable housing and our protection for the environment are all similarly pockmarked with giant craters, broken by years of Tory austerity.
Lucy Hamilton
Weymouth, Dorset
• If posting videos of people crossing the Channel in small boats in a “positive light” is to be illegal(Donelan confirms stiffer online safety measures after backbench pressure, 17 January), how long will it be before posting “negative” videos of people being loaded on to planes to Rwanda is criminalised?
Matt Atkinson
Netley, Hampshire
• I have just read your obituary of Paul Johnson (13 January) and realised, at the age of 80, what a fortunate life I have had. I too am Catholic, red-headed and left-handed, but I cannot recall ever experiencing prejudice. Lucky me!
Anne Veronica Riding
Rossendale, Lancashire
• “Why hasn’t Harry given up his ridiculous title yet?” asks Arwa Mahdawi (13 January). Prince Harry’s titles are gifts from his granny. Who gives back a gift from their granny?
Erin Reiche
El Cerrito, California, US
• My copy of Philip Harben’s 1960 paperback Cooking is opened once a year, reverently, as a Christmas ritual, on pp261-2 – his recipe for bread sauce (Letters, 16 January).
Jenny Swann
Vice-president, Nottinghamshire Bread Sauce Preservation Society
