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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Letters

The grim cost of ripping up red tape

Shredded paper
Ripping up regulations is not necessarily a good idea in practice, says Kevin McGrath. Photograph: Queensbury/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Every time I hear the expression “bonfire of red tape”, I cannot help but think of the Grenfell Tower fire, which so tragically illustrated what that cliche can actually mean (Who wants Liz Truss’s bonfire of net-zero red tape? Not big business, for a start, 23 September). Do others have the same reaction?
Kevin McGrath
Harlow, Essex

• May I suggest that Adrian Chiles comes and spends some time in the beautiful Staffordshire Moorlands, where our landlords and cafe managers take pride in keeping the toilet facilities clean (I recently saw something in a petrol station toilet southbound on the M1 that I can never unsee, 21 September). He should choose his venues more carefully – or use the ladies.
Judy Herbert
Leek, Staffordshire

• So the population of beavers has increased by 16,700% (Back from the brink: how bison, bears and beavers returned to Europe, 27 September). It reminds me of writing answers to parliamentary questions when I was a private secretary in the early 1970s. If the figures were unimpressive we used percentages; if the percentages lacked zip we used figures.
Steve Loveman
Sheffield

• Tim Harrison is lucky if he at least knows what the tune endlessly looping in his brain is (Letters, 25 September). I had a mysterious tune for weeks that I could not identify. It was only when doing a follow-up call for a client at my weekly volunteer session at Citizens Advice that I finally realised that it was the hold music for the pension credit helpline.
Heather Massie
Rossendale, Lancashire

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