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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World

What my parents didn’t do in the war

The mansion house at Bletchley Park.
The mansion house at Bletchley Park. ‘The Fusion Room, which barely figures in accounts of the Bletchley achievements, was full of talented women.’ Photograph: Teri Pengilley

My parents worked in the same team at Bletchley Park, in the Fusion Room (Letters, 25 March). When asked, my mother said she was a telephonist. The accepted stereotype dampened curiosity. My father warned off questioners by telling them he spent the war “painting spots on rocking horses”. The Fusion Room, which barely figures in accounts of the Bletchley achievements, was full of talented women (Cambridge college unmasks alumnae who were Bletchley Park codebreakers, 17 March).
Prof Dame Helen Wallace
London

• Michael Gove’s visits to QPR matches are being treated as perks (Michael Gove guilty of standards breach for not registering VIP football tickets, 25 March)? If my husband’s mood when he returns from QPR’s games is anything to go by, Gove should be rewarded for such selfless suffering.
Mary Foley
Wandsworth, London

• Can I suggest a new Boat Race tradition? Don’t throw the winning cox into the Thames; choose an Oxbridge-educated water company board member instead. Thames Water should have the first honour (‘A national disgrace’: Oxford rail at River Thames pollution ahead of Boat Race, 27 March).
Richard Churcher
London

• It’s “business as usual for Thames Water” says its CEO, as it seeks new emergency funding (Business live, 28 March). Well, that’s not very reassuring, is it.
Pat Comery
Bridford, Devon

• I don’t mind spending £400,000 for these ministers to go to Rwanda (Report, 22 March). It’s paying for them to come back that I object to.
William Comery
Twickenham, London

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