Jenny Braithwaite (Letters, 29 January) deftly characterises the peer-to-peer learning model of U3A groups. However, the “third age” is not limited to “retired people” – founders characterised it as a time in life when education is for its own sake, not for qualifications. And U3A groups are not “branches” of the national Third Age Trust, but autonomous units within it.
Keith Richards
Former chair, Third Age Trust
• Rishi Sunak, as a Hindu, should heed the Mahabharata, which relates the tale of Yudhishthira – a man who lost everything, including his wife, when involved in gambling (Sunak ‘out of touch’ for betting £1,000 on Rwanda plan’s success, says Labour, 5 February). I’d settle for Sunak just losing the election.
Phil Sinnott
Crosby, Merseyside
• Walking down the main street in Clovelly, Devon, I kept losing my husband, who was behind me. It turned out he was watching a football match, in instalments, as he passed each living room with a television (Letters, 5 February).
Lesley Barnes
Greenford, London
• So sorry that Ian Lavender has died (Obituary, 5 February). I imagine that, at the pearly gates, when he’s asked for his name by Saint Peter, a voice from within will cry: “Don’t tell him, Pike!”
Dr Stephen Pacey
North Muskham, Nottinghamshire
• Ian Lavender won a celebrity special of The Weakest Link in 2002. As he walked off, he turned to the camera and said, in his Private Pike voice, “Not such a stupid boy after all, Mr Mainwaring.”
Steve Lupton
Prestwich, Greater Manchester
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