Thousands of French protesters – the “gilets jaunes” – have been donning yellow vests to protest against poverty and low pay (Report, 24 November). After Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) was published, thousands of young romantics in Europe started to wear yellow waistcoats in order to identify with the hero’s doomed and unrequited love. When literary symbolism becomes a collective political force, presidents know they are in trouble.

Ivor Morgan

Lincoln

• Theresa May is threatening MPs that unless they vote for her bizarre deal Britain will be “back to square one” (Report, 26 November). Presumably nobody has told her that a good half of voters want us to be precisely there. In 2016, she and 48% of voters opted for square one, and the proportion will now be distinctly greater, as evidenced by polls and demographic changes since then.

Eryl Bassett

Canterbury, Kent

• How astounding that we live in a world where scientists celebrate as a Mars probe lands after a journey of 300m miles (Report, 27 November) and we cannot manage to prevent homelessness.

Jane Petchell

Nottingham

• Three cheers for Saturday’s new-look jumbo Killer sudoku (24 November). Owing to the large format I have been able to complete this hard sudoku for the first time. I was beginning to think that my cataract operation in May hadn’t been very successful!

Gloria Bates

Market Drayton, Shropshire

• The “Seven Wonders of Yorkshire” (Letters, 26 November). Only seven?!

Ian Thackray

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

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