It’s welcome news that the average weekly pay is now £474, but this highlights the danger of using averages to help paint a picture. I bet the majority of the 974,000 people on zero-hours contracts would be delighted to earn that amount (Lost decade limps to an end as wages creep above pre-crisis levels, 19 February).
Sam White
Lewes, East Sussex
• The proof that the life which surely exists out there is intelligent (Is anybody out there? Biggest hunt ever to begin for alien life, 15 February) is that it has so far managed to avoid us. We should take the hint and leave it in peace.
John Foster
Department of politics, philosophy and religion, Lancaster University
• When I were a lad, elision had strict rules; making it th’autocue, not t’autocue (Not trusted with t’autocue? Barnsley bard bewails bias on TV news, 18 February). Mind you, in them days we didn’t ’ave th’internet to check stuff on.
Neil Hanson
Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire
• I recently made several jars of Seville marmalade inspired by Dan Lepard’s trusty Guardian recipe from 2010. Then I heard Lady Marmalade by Labelle on the jukebox in the Rovers Return last week. It seems that even Coronation Street is getting in on the act (Letters, 20 February).
Beverley Mason
Cardiff
• Our seven-year-old granddaughter told us that at school they’d been studying for the satsumas – a term apparently only used by pupils.
Bryan Sowerby
Coventry
• Outside Lincolnshire, yellowbelly is a common pejorative term, albeit more usual in the US vernacular, and surely livers are more often lily than yellow (Letters, 17 February).
Simon Fielding
Wolverhampton
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