At 74, I’d want police to call me Madam, not You!

You reported last week that police are being told to use genderneutral terms such as ‘you’ and

‘all’ when addressing the public.

As a 74-year-old biological female, why should I be addressed as ‘you’?

I also giggled when I read about singer Sam Smith’s crew and their preferred pronouns. We are all just a number in this world gone mad. Lynne Wakefield,

West Yorkshire

It is a sensible move to ask police to avoid assuming people’s sexual orientation and gender.

We should all take care with our use of language to be inclusive and sensitive to all. Gender is an outdated 20th Century relic.

P. Woods, London

I read in last week’s Mail on Sunday that the House of Lords is the latest institution to embrace wokery by asking staff to ban terminology such as ‘manmade’.

Anyone offended by that is making a mockery of real offence because the word has nothing to do with sex or gender. We need a swift end to damaging wokism.

Charles Jackson, Newcastle upon Tyne

No matter what the Lords want to call people, I still think ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’ sounds much more dignified than

‘Fanfare For The Average Person’.

Roy Kennedy, Paignton, Devon

How will we teach our children to address a letter if we cannot use ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’? Perhaps Cockney rhyming slang makes more sense than modern day English.

Norman Sampson, Dagenham

Preferred pronouns? What a load of tosh. No wish to insult you but if you think I’m going to call you ‘they’, think again.

Vincent Hefter, Richmond

The actions being taken to avoid offence are becoming laughable.

Tights can no longer be ‘nude’, scripts from sitcoms are being sanitised, and now we can no longer address people as ‘Sir’ or

‘Ma’am’. My only hope is that, among all this, we might be told to stop using the term ‘guys’. Sue Wilding,

Scarborough

I’m 57 and nobody has ever asked me what my preferred pronoun is.

When you’re speaking with someone you never use their pronouns anyway, so what’s the big deal?

J. Price, Manchester

They will have to come up with a reasonable, gender-neutral name for everyone because I am not prepared to lose my womanhood.

S. Bolton, Dundee