Boris Johnson and Oliver Cromwell have both managed to cancel Christmas

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Recent postings on Facebook have compared Boris Johnson to Oliver Cromwell in as much as they have both effectively abolished Christmas. But while it was true that in 1644 people were prohibited from dancing, feasting, partying and singing carols, back then it was done by way of an act passed in parliament, rather than the 2020 equivalent "rule of six", which was imposed by diktat without any scrutiny by our MPs.

Colin Burke

Cartmel

Withdrawal rights and wrongs

Did Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings et al make a big mistake when negotiating and signing the withdrawal agreement? If the answer is yes they were incompetent and should resign. If the answer is no, then where is the problem?

Tony Harris

Stockton-on-Tees

Sheffield ticks along

There seems to be a lot of good going on in Sheffield. Churches are providing moral support for people via online services and phone calls, food banks in Hillsborough and Stannington are collecting food for people struggling to make ends meet.

Pubs have reopened giving people places to socialise as long as they adhere to correct guidelines and public transport continues to run, giving a lifeline to those of us who don't own our own cars, and libraries are hosting online events encouraging reading for pleasure and creative writing.

Schools should be put on reduced opening with children encouraged to play outside as much as possible instead of having to be in class, nothing on the curriculum is worth contracting Covid-19 for.

And please could we end this nonsense of allowing libraries to be run with cliques of volunteers, and have all 28 Sheffield libraries run with staff once again.

N J P Artridge

Sheffield

Brexit brevity

Looking at the latest Brexit "crisis" I thought it wise to sum up the cause using a phrase, which appears to be gaining traction across many media platforms (not my invention).

Promise everything, deliver nothing, blame someone else!

After all, our woeful prime minister and his puppet master appear to value short, punchy, easy to understand, statements.

I wonder what their thoughts are on this one?

Robert Boston

Kingshill

Rules are rules

In Everything She Wants, the second volume of Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher, the writer records the lady as talking approvingly of “incorruptible law” and declaring that "the law came from us (the British)".  One wonders what Mrs T  would have made of the current farrago over the government’s new Brexit bill.

The Rev Andrew McLuskey

Ashford

Test lottery

I live in Somerset, which has a very low rate of confirmed cases. Yesterday, I developed a temperature and felt very unwell.  I thought the socially responsible thing to do was to book a test.  This was the result:

No home tests available

Drive through sites – none listed

Walk through sites – none listed

I guess that’s OK because we don’t have any cases here … ?

Alison Jeffries

Address supplied