Following Donald Trump’s demand that news agencies amend their style guides to reflect current US terminology (like “Gulf of America”), has the Guardian now fallen into line too? Martin Kettle (Opinion, 29 May) tosses in a casual “gotten” (“so far Charles has gotten away with it”) and Rebecca Nicholson (TV review, 28 May) idly talks of turning on a “faucet” (“the faucet of public attention”). I suggest a 25% tariff on unwonted and unwanted Americanisms.
Simon Elmes
London
Gwyneth Paltrow once said that, according to her father, the secret behind her parents’ 30-year marriage in the divorce-ridden world of Hollywood was that “they never wanted to get divorced at the same time” (Letters, 27 May).
Richard Ehrlich
London
We have children because they grow up and leave home, and we have dogs because they don’t (Are millennials really substituting dogs for children? Obviously not – as any dog owner would know, 28 May).
Roger Leitch
Bath
Look, some of us just prefer dogs to children, OK?
Geoff Holman
Knutsford, Cheshire
It’s no surprise that Keir Starmer’s Labour is happy with the decline of swift numbers (Letters, 28 May). After all, they are migrants.
Pete Bibby
Sheffield
Since my total colectomy operation, I have neither a colon nor even a semicolon (Letters, 28 May), but thanks to the NHS my life has not come to a full stop.
Bob Epton
Brigg, Lincolnshire
