Your report (UK launches emergency phone alerts public warning system, 19 March) was received with cynicism in this household. In much of our village, including our house, there is no mobile signal at all. In the rest of the village it is weak. Our phones are only switched on when we go somewhere where there is a signal. I suppose we are out of touch. Like the government.
Peter Stevens
Farley, Wiltshire
• In answer to Peter Stewart (Letters, 17 March), never in 70 years have I heard “spaded” used in any context, including when I helped build the M25 – using a shovel. Loose material is shovelled, hard material dug with a spade, not a shovel, unless you wish to break the blade or your back.
Dave Young
St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex
