The “Orwellian” schmoozing of young people in schools along the proposed HS2 route (Report, 12 December) pales into insignificance alongside the efforts of the nuclear industry to ingratiate itself with the community around the Magnox nuclear power station at Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex. Some 20 or more years ago Girl Guides staged an enrolment ceremony while standing on the pile cap of the then active nuclear reactor.

Val Mainwood

Wivenhoe, Essex

• The inhabitants of Mata Hari’s home city would not be pleased to read that they live in “Friesland, Holland” (Mother, dancer, wife, spy, G2, 6 December). Friesland, one of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands, has its own language, literature and proud history. North and South Holland are merely two other provinces of the same country. My Frisian husband, having lived in London for over 40 years, recently acquired a second passport. He became a British citizen – not an English one. It’s pretty much the same difference.

Liz Barnes

London

• Challenging times for small-scale poultry keepers (Owners told to keep poultry inside amid bird flu alert, 8 December). Our solution, for normally free-range hens, is a trampoline draped in pegged-down fruit netting, attached to the small chicken house. At least they can still have dust baths and peck around. How are others resolving the situation?

Mary Stiff

Westwood, Devon

• I’m 62 and not sure if I count as an older woman, but my two daughters, now 30 and 26, played with Barbies and had pink rollerblades when they were little. They also played with snails, climbed trees and surfed. Most importantly, they had inspirational science teachers and are both now scientists themselves. There’s more to bringing up children than toys, whatever colour they are (Letters, 12 December).

Helen Keats

Shorwell, Isle of Wight

• Andy Beckett helpfully recontextualises voters’ power, rural and urban (Cities may dominate our culture but real power now lies in the countryside, 13 December), but while Ukip et al can readily identify the metropolitan elites no one is yet doing the same for a rural equivalent.

Mark Robins

Exeter

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