All aboard for a distracting announcement

Never mind Partygate, soaring energy prices and hundreds of Covid deaths a day. Grant Shapps has got his priorities right. What could be more important than cutting train announcements (Train passengers in England to be given break from ‘endless’ announcements, 21 January)?
Sue Ward
Newcastle upon Tyne

• At a grammar school in the 1980s, we held fortnightly departmental meetings in a local pub (Letters, 20 January). The headmaster would plead with us not to all travel in the same car. He didn’t want the whole of his maths department to be wiped out in one go.
John McCrae
Herne Bay, Kent

• Working as a bus conductor in the 1970s, I remember that whenever a management meeting was held in the lounge bar of a local pub, a union meeting was arranged in the adjacent public bar. Apparently the tipsy managers never twigged that they were also picking up the tab for the thirsty workers.
Tim Barker
Eastington, Gloucestershire

• As every owner of a smaller dog knows, being a “big dog” is all about attitude, not size (Letters, 20 January).
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Llangollen Canal

• Joyce Turcotte praises masks for covering up wrinkles (Letters, 16 January), but I find them useful for covering up my yawning in face-to-face meetings.
Tim Martineau
Wirral

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