As the sole parent of two disabled children who have lots of medical needs, I have found the new GP online booking system an immense improvement (Letters, 12 December). It is efficient and far less stressful for me. My inner‑city practice responds quickly. It is streets ahead of the old system where I was caller No 26 at 9am.
Anne McLaughlin
Manchester

Politicians of all stripes have condemned the resident doctors for striking for meaningful progress in getting their pay back to real-terms parity with that prior to the 2008 crash (Officials fear NHS will be hit hard after resident doctors reject latest offer, 15 December). Perhaps those same politicians would like to tell us how their own pay has fared over the same period.
Tony Fletcher
Bryncoch, Neath Port Talbot

Your correspondent writes: “A few scales and arpeggios never hurt anyone” (Letters, 15 December). As someone who endured excruciating carpal tunnel syndrome when practising scales and arpeggios for grade 8 piano, I beg to differ.
Edward Collier
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

On the finish of HS2, Patrick Barkham was told that “it will begin with a ‘4’ when you can catch a train” (‘We hate it. It’s desecration’: the real cost of HS2, 16 December). Surely another two millennia to completion is pessimistic, even for this project.
David Griffiths
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

A close friend of my late father maintained that there were three ages of man: youth, middle age and “my, you’re looking well” (Letters, 16 December).
Chris Southey
Durham