No cheese and wine at patient’s lonely deathbed

No 10 Christmas party | Grouse shooting | Pre-ordering | Baseball caps

One night manning the phones as a GP in lockdown, I talked to a carer sitting with an elderly woman discharged from hospital and dying of Covid. She had refused readmission, saying that she didn’t want to take an ICU bed from a young person. The carer needed someone to talk to during her lonely vigil. What a shame nobody thought to call a business meeting (PM accused of lying after No 10 officials caught joking about Christmas party, 7 December). They could have had cheese and wine.
Dr Mary Lowth
London

• The Tories have given opposition parties the perfect billboard banner for any future election: “They’re laughing at you.”
Frank Gutierrez
Sutton-on-the-Forest, North Yorkshire

• Thanks to Patrick Barkham (4 December) for reporting the efforts of grouse moor keepers to protect hen harriers. A pitiful contribution compared with the damage driven grouse shooting does to other wildlife and the environment.
Jane Hutchins
Crowborough, East Sussex

• Comments about “pre-booking” (Letters, 7 December) bring to mind the great Irish humorist Flann O’Brien’s advice on getting a fictitious forthcoming book: “It is not enough simply to order your copy. You must order it in advance.”
Chris Baker
Willington, Derbyshire

• The curious resurgence of this headgear (Baseball caps are back thanks to Succession but logos are out, 3 December) is noted. But I have always abided by the view of The Libertines that “there are fewer more distressing sights than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap”.
Dan Stacey
London

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