It is not just drivers who need to be banned from using mobile phones

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It’s not just drivers who are a menace with a mobile phone in their hand (PA)

Will the new laws on mobile phones also apply to cyclists? I see them riding along one hand to their ear and the other trying to steer. Could we also have regulations to stop cyclists riding on the road when there is a special cycleway alongside?

Mike Dods Leeds

Chris Grayling’s proposal to be tough on mobile phone usage while driving is to be welcomed. But what about the walkers I see while driving my car who seem oblivious to the danger they are creating for themselves and others as they step out onto the road engrossed in a phone conversation? Banned from walking? Crikey!

David Lyons Poynton

Our rail services are a shambles

You only have to look at the flora growing out of the cracks between our bridges and retaining walls, the loose masonry and the filth or peeling paint and rust on every surface to know that Network Rail has very poor standards of maintenance once you leave the track. This is not just cosmetic – it signposts a culture of slackness and poor understanding of what the costs of rectifying such neglect are.

We are behind the continent on every aspect, not just signalling technology.

Michael Mann Shrewsbury

I very much enjoy Simon Calder’s travel writing. But I’ve found his commentary on the state of the country’s rail network to be frankly irritating. Sure, it’s possible to book in advance and have a perfectly pleasant trip of some several hundred miles north out of London. Starting any train journey at the originating station will almost always mean there’s a good chance of getting a seat. Picking a journey which is not typical of most people’s daily commute to work is also unlikely to pick up on those factors which most irritate (real) commuters: unreliability and overcrowding.

Stick him in a hotel in Leighton Buzzard for two weeks, tell him to get the 8.06 into Euston every day while he’s there, then have him report back. Note: this is not Southern Rail but one of our allegedly better train operators.

Kathryn Robertson Newton Longville

Why did we quit the EU to hand control over to China?

As a Bremain voter who has “got over it” I am most disappointed to see that not only are we now sacrificing our sovereignty to China but that we are bailing out French state-owned power company EDF in order to do it.

It seems we can’t even do isolationism properly – we’re still submitting to overseas power! Although, by committing to nuclear right at the end of the atomic age, we are at least still managing to remain firmly trapped in the past.

Julian Self Wolverton

An ode to Nigel Farage

So, farewell then, Nigel Farage. Take a bow BBC, and the rest of the media – you gave him all the oxygen he needed.

Ian Jones London SW6