Brash Ash won’t get my vote

I will never watch Strictly Come Dancing again after Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts (left, with partner Pasha Kovalev last week) made the final. Ashley has vast dance experience, whereas a contestant like Lauren Steadman was a novice but made such an improvement as the series progressed. Trudi Phillips, Harrogate

I wonder if the lack of enthusiasm towards Ashley is anything to do with her being a confident, eloquent American who is in the limelight at the same time as rumours abound about another confident, eloquent American (ie Meghan). We don’t like the idea of our hasn’t-put-a-foot-wrong Duchess of Cambridge being upset by a new member of The Firm. Similarly, we don’t like unassuming British contestants being upstaged by another person from over the Pond. Name and address supplied

Britons of a certain age camped outside Elstree Studios in the cold for 11 hours to acquire a ‘golden ticket’ for Strictly. While their commitment is admirable, one wishes their zeal was directed at loftier aims. If their time given to a TV programme could be transferred to holding our MPs to account, our democratic form of governance would really be participatory. Chaka Artwell, Oxford