The prime minister’s spokesperson tells us that “spades are already in the ground” (HS2 at risk of further cuts to route north of Birmingham amid budget squeeze, 14 September). I doubt this very much – if the railway navvies had been building the line it would have been completed by now.
Ian Ferguson
Pickering, North Yorkshire
• Tim Dowling’s description of his cat’s apparently murderous intent will have resonated in many cat-owning households (9 September). In our house, the cat is also known as “the killer on the stairs” (Try singing it to the tune of The Doors’ Riders on the Storm.)
Marilyn Rayner
Great Ness, Shropshire
• When I was trying to teach Canadian engineering students some conventions for writing emails (‘Yours sincerely’ is dead. So how should you sign off an email?, 13 September), I suggested that they might like to sign off “with very best wishes” if they meant it, and “with best wishes” if they didn’t.
John Considine
Sedbergh, Cumbria
• With regards to Dr Colin Smith’s reference to Liz Truss as Major Blunder and Rishi Sunak as General Incompetence (Letters, 12 September), he failed to mention Boris Johnson as Brigadier Bullshit.
John Atkinson
Wilby, Northamptonshire
• Would-be immortal Bryan Johnson (‘My ultimate goal? Don’t die’: Bryan Johnson on his controversial plan to live for ever, 14 September) needs to get a life.
Joe Oldaker
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
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