A caring nanny state could be good for us | Brief letters

Toothbrushing in schools | Fake steering wheels | Breastfeeding support | Undressing acrobatics

Re your print headline “Starmer ready to counter ‘nanny state’ jibe to boost child health” (Report, 10 January), I’ve always thought the best riposte is pointing out that having a nanny generally denotes high social status and prosperity. Let’s aspire to have a nanny state that cares about its citizens, and bin off the hypocritical wealthy carpers. Surely what’s good enough for the rich is equally good enough for the rest of us?
Nigel Pollitt
London

• You report that the Docklands Light Railway may install fake steering wheels on its trains (Report, 11 January). Quite why a train running on rails should need a steering wheel, fake or otherwise, is a mystery to me. But even more mysterious is that these driverless trains have always been equipped with windscreen wipers.
Ian Barrett
Woking, Surrey

• Re Sirin Kale’s article on breastfeeding (‘I felt rage. I had traded my sanity for milk’: what happened when I breastfed despite the pain, 10 January), I breastfed my babies when it was illegal to do so in public (in Scotland). Which was fun. But if I’d been told then that there would be more misery and misinformation and less support for young mothers 40 years on, I’d not have believed it.
Dr Janice Brown
Chryston, North Lanarkshire

• Having recently dislocated a finger while simply removing my socks, I caution against any undressing acrobatics (Letters, 11 January).
Stephen Bibby (aged 74)
Silchester, Hampshire

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