Paying a heavy price for grammar school

The assertion that “the rest of us” are subsidising private school education is incorrect (Private schools are on the offensive because Labour looms – and their privileges are under threat, 21 June). I pay a stinging annual amount to send my daughter to a local grammar school, and also a stinging amount of tax, part of which is ostensibly for her state education. Since we’re paying the tax, but not consuming the resources, it is “we” who already subsidise the state sector.
Peter Anderson
Leeds

• On doing less laundry (The no wash movement, 20 June), can I recommend the use of the humble apron? When I was a teenager I regularly found my nan and great-nan wearing aprons or “housecoats” (a very thin, buttoned-up coat). These were kept on until all the housework and gardening was finished, and would be used again when cooking. So clothing stayed cleaner for longer. I am a late adopter of the apron, but now own several to keep my clothes clean when doing tasks.
Elaine Harris
Dursley, Gloucestershire

• Re funeral songs (Letters, 25 June), as usual, Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields has the perfect song. I commend to you the one minute and nine seconds of The Dead Only Quickly. If you don’t like Stephin’s gloomy baritone, there’s always the cover by the Divine Comedy, which is six seconds shorter.
Mark Ynys-Mon
Glasgow

• My country-loving cousin chose Hank Williams singing I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive to be played as the crematorium curtains closed on his coffin.
Marilyn Rowley
Didsbury, Greater Manchester

• Re your article (Heart monitors on shopping trolleys ‘could identify people at risk of stroke’, 24 June), perhaps a better way to prevent cardiovascular disease would be a shopping trolley handle that becomes very, very sticky when going down the alcohol aisle.
Dr Jon Fenton
Rochester, Kent

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