If other sports are allowed, why not shooting as well?
■ If ever we needed any more evidence that it’s one rule for them and one rule for us, it’s the government’s introduction of an exception for grouse shooting from the new ‘rule of six’ coronavirus restrictions (Metro, Tue).
While people can no longer gather in groups larger than six outdoors, up to 30 people can still go hunting.
Neil Dance, Birmingham
■ I was so pleased when I saw that grouse shooting was exempt from Boris’s new six-in-a-bed ban. The grouse shooting club from my local council estate meets frequently to combat the nuisance of the grouse running across the estate, disturbing the peacocks, eating the trout and frightening the unicorns. Happily, Boris lives in the same world that I do.
Peter A, South Shields
■ Your article should have pointed out that country sports such as game shooting are carried out by small groups in the fresh air of the countryside and therefore pose little or no risk of spreading Covid-19.
Also that country sports contribute tens of millions of pounds of much needed income to rural communities during the winter months, as well as maintaining our much loved flora and fauna.
If the author of this journalism would care to contact any genuine countryside organisations, I’m sure they would be happy to provide him with science-backed facts and figures.
Andrew, West Sussex
■ Anyone with any idea of shooting would know and understand that when shooting, one stands 20 to 30m apart from one another, uses their own vehicles to travel and abide by the rules.
From the safety point of view it’s probably the most disciplined sport.
Craig Urquhart, Haslemere
■ Further to the grouse shooting article, all sporting activities are still allowed including football and cricket, rounders etc. Why knock sports that put more money into farming and conservation than most other sports put together?
Malcolm Palmer, Heath Hayes
■ Regarding the government’s selfproclaimed ‘world-beating’ coronavirus testing system being branded a ‘shambles’ (Metro, Tue), I’ve tried booking for a Covid swab test online for the past few days and after filling in all the necessary details online, I keep getting the reply – no test site available.
I live in Hounslow and have been to two test sites to see whether they will accept me – one site is at the rugby stadium in Twickenham and another at a car park off Hanworth Road – and there was not one person waiting for a test. The staff said I had to book online and I told them that I’d been trying.
The staff in the car park were just sitting waiting for people who had booked online and they refused to do the test without an online booking. I even showed them my ID as I’m a key worker with social services. I couldn’t believe it.
Why can’t they just accept people who come for the test, especially when there’s no one waiting to be tested?
Harbans, Hounslow
■ Let’s see if I understand this – there’s a pandemic and all countries are affected, some more than others. All countries are trying to test as many people as possible. So where are these countries that the UK is sending Covid swabs to be tested?
And why do they have more capacity than us after all these months we’ve had to improve capacity? We really are second-rate.
Valerie, London
■ As we head towards another lockdown, with a lot of young people protesting about having to socially distance and not go to parties because of the elderly being vulnerable to the virus, do they not think that if the boot was on the other foot, the elderly would do everything in their power to protect our young people?
We would do it in a heartbeat but there they are, quite happy to go out and socialise en masse with not a thought about taking the virus home to parents and grandparents.
I know it’s not all young people with this attitude but there are too many out there with the ‘save yourself’ school of thought. We are all in this together... or are we?
Marilyn, Norfolk
■ With everyone feeling frustrated by the Covid restrictions and the government’s new ‘rule of six’, please spare a thought for those of us living in retirement flats.
At ours, we’ve been banned from gathering in our communal lounge since the beginning of the pandemic, even after lockdown rules were relaxed. And we still can’t meet (even in a group of six).
This is clearly not great for the mental health of residents. They obviously think we over-60s are less responsible than university students and school children!
Hilary, Surbiton