Venezuela’s claim to Guyana’s western region, based on a Spanish colonial-era map (Report, 15 December), offers a useful precedent in solving the refugee problem. If Britain reclaimed Calais using the same argument, refugees who reach the Channel coast could be deemed to have arrived in Britain, and evaluated without further delay or risk. This idea is no more absurd than the government’s Rwanda plan.
John Edmondson
Holywell, Flintshire
• Is it time that online retailers made the gift message mandatory? So far this week, we’ve had a case of wine, another case of wine, some expensive liqueur chocolates and a box of multicoloured socks, all anonymous. What’s the etiquette for canvassing our friends to find out who the kind donors are?
Mary Love and John Post
Newent, Gloucestershire
• Re the photo of a pair of tree swallows (Readers’ best photographs, 20 December), I can’t agree with Karen Smith’s interpretation of a dispute. I think the male is courting the female with a heartfelt song, but she’s looking a little coy, as if to say: “You’d better try a bit harder!”
Jill Hughes
Horsmonden, Kent
• I can’t believe that Hullraisers on Channel 4, the year’s funniest comedy, isn’t in your top 50 TV shows of 2023 .
Teresa Edmeades
Sheffield
• Gobsmacked that Slow Horses didn’t appear in the top 50. As a punishment, I’d send the review team for a spell in Slough House.
Peter Foy
Tavistock, Devon
• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
