Sticks and stones

SIR – By what stretch of the imagination is “not a bad idea” a violent idiom (“Time to kill off violent idioms, says author”, report, February 6)? It is a good example of British understatement – which should not be removed or replaced.

Why do people want to keep on impoverishing the English language and have us talking in nonsensical euphemisms?

Andrea Bates

Enstone, Oxfordshire

SIR – Last week a contributor to

Thought for the Day on Radio 4 managed to find offence in the hymn

All Things Bright and Beautiful.

When will this utter nonsense cease?

John Cooper

Southwold, Suffolk