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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Letters

Stop for coffee and a bit of Chartist history at Hartshead Moor services

Hartshead Moor services on the eastbound M62 in West Yorkshire, rated the worst in the country in a recent survey.
Hartshead Moor services on the eastbound M62 in West Yorkshire, rated the worst in the country in a recent survey. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Detractors of Hartshead Moor East service station, and its defenders (Letters, 23 October), have missed the fact that it stands on the site of Peep Green, the moorland area where Chartists held huge outdoor meetings in 1838, 1839 and 1848. The meeting in May 1839 is thought to be the largest political gathering held in Britain up until then, with 250,000 people. Which is nice to think of over your cup of coffee.
Cris Yelland
Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham

You rightly ridicule Suella Braverman’s use of “tofu-eating” to stereotype those who do not agree with her (‘It’s not woke’: Braverman dig leaves bitter taste in Tory tofu capital, 21 October). Would the same apply to your use of “Barbour-jacket-wearing” to characterise Malton, “the UK’s capital of tofu”, in the same article?
Dermot Killingley
Newcastle upon Tyne

You report that one Tory MP admitted: “My head is with Rishi, my heart is with Penny and my soul is with Boris” (Will Sunak find the fractured Tory party is ungovernable, 25 October). It shouldn’t be hard to identify the anonymous commentator – a Tory MP with a head, a heart and a soul?
Bill Bradbury
Bolton, Greater Manchester

• Where can I get my “Boris Woulda Won” mug (Boris Johnson exit from Tory leadership race avoids likely humiliation, 23 October)?
Joe Ross
Lewes, East Sussex

On receiving county approval for some new design teaching rooms, our headmaster announced to the school at assembly: “We are going to build a brand new spanking block” (Letters, 23 October).
John McCrae
Herne Bay, Kent

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