Your Letters
I whole-heartedly endorse the idea of a no-child flight. On my flight to Hong Kong earlier this year a woman stood for the entire 12 hour flight fretting over the cot in which her baby was sleeping. The baby itself was absolutely no problem, but the mother was a very irritating distraction from Taken which I was trying to watch (if anyone knows what happens at the end I'd love to know - the video shut off for landing about 15 minutes before the credits).
Basil Long, Nottingham
Note to Mark Scales (Thursday's letters): the sign might say "use both lanes" but it really means "use either lane".
Colin Main, Berkhamsted, UK
If we are going to persist with these sign gags, surely we must mention the solitary sign seen on the side of a country road which simply read "Sign not in use".
David, Cannock, UK
Magna Carta was very important for guaranteeing the liberties of the English Church. Otherwise it gave more powers to the barons against the King. But, as the stage version of "1066 & All That" put it, it was good for everyone "except the common people".
Ian Falconer, Staveley, Chesterfield, England
A minor quibble: the version of Magna Carta enacted into law in 1297 was not, as you have it, the 'first English statute'; indeed, the Chronological Tables of the Statutes list several dozen statutes before Magna Carta. The first statute is generally considered to be the Statute of Merton 1235, and the oldest statute still in force today is the Statute of Marlborough 1267. I'll get my robes.
JJ, London, UK