We should all be grateful for ‘Spare’

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Royal read: Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’ (AFP/Getty)

Perhaps we should be positively thankful that we live in an age (and place) where the outcomes of royal sibling spats are only media attention and books, rather than military destabilisation, assassination attempts and so on!

Judith George

Edinburgh

Thank you for caring about cows

Thank you for your piece on “Cows in filthy conditions“ (6 January) from the investigation by Viva. These things need to be brought to the public’s attention. If you don’t pay enough for milk, this is what will happen: vets won’t be called, injuries won’t be attended to, and staff will abuse lame and suffering creatures.

This is heartbreaking. I had to give up milk because of these practices. Even organic milk, which offers better welfare, still involves calves being torn away from their mothers at four or five days old. We need their milk more than their babies do, of course. Non-organic, it’s three days. The mothers call for their babies in anguish for days.

This is what is driving the vegan revolution. Oat and soya milk might not be without their drawbacks, but seeing those poor tortured souls is enough to convince me it is good enough. Thank you again. You’re the only paper that regularly features these kinds of stories.

Lynn Brymer

Ashford, Kent

Whoops...

In his review of The Apprentice, Sean O’Grady says he “misses the old classical theme tune by Borodin”. He sure does, as the Dance of the Knights was composed by Prokofiev.

Cole Davis

Norwich

Sunak is devoid of imagination

Devoid of imagination Rishi Sunak reaches for the dead hand of number assessment. What a complete farago. This unelected multimillionaire fails to see that the arts, humanities and creative industries contribute so much more to the UK than accountants.

Our creativity and inventiveness defines who we are as a nation, and all too frequently fails to be supported by the financial bots in the City, and in this instance a dead-end dead-beat government. Never vote Tory: get them out as soon as possible.

Andrew Speller

Address supplied

Putin’s propaganda

I am responding to Lucy Skoulding and Arpan Rai’s article “Putin’s ceasefire in doubt as air raid sirens ring in Kyiv” (6 January).

Vladimir Putin understands the importance of propaganda both domestically and on an international stage. While it is crucial that Ukraine does not provide Russia with any territorial advantage during the “ceasefire”, the impact of this propaganda should be anticipated and recognised as an attempt to gain more favourable opinions in order to make stronger claims for the disputed territories.

I believe Ukraine should prioritise new delimitation agreements with Russia, while it has the support and sympathy of Nato as delimitation would help to mitigate further local and global disruptions.

Joseph Harnett

Newcastle University Politics and International Relations