It’s a great honour to be called a mugwump | Brief letters

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson. ‘Think before you speak,’ warns Ralph Willett. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

John Draper makes a good point about competitive tendering for rail franchises within EU member states – but isn’t the main point about renationalising the railways that there won’t be any new franchises to bid for (Letters, 26 April)! Whether Caroline Lucas wants Britain to remain in the EU or not is therefore irrelevant.
Paul Tattam
Chinley, Derbyshire

• Think before you speak, foreign secretary (Report, 27 April). The term “mugwump” was used in the US to describe an independent Republican who refused to support the party ticket (sound familiar, Boris?) in 1884. I don’t think Jeremy will take too much offence: the term derives originally from the Algonquian Indian language and means “chief” or “great man”.
Ralph Willett
Sherborne, Dorset

• I enjoyed Andrew Solomon’s article (Families have evolved. Now language must too, 24 April). But there are far less complicated family relationships which have clumsy descriptions. How do we easily refer to our grandchildren’s other grandparents?
Jean Holmes
Clitheroe, Lancashire

• Paula Cocozza is right of course (A turn up for the books: how ebooks lost their shine, 27 April), but I suspect she’s not as old and decrepit as me. Arthritic hands make holding a real book physically painful these days and chronic insomnia means lots of night-time reading. I’ve loved holding and reading real books for seven decades but I thank my lucky stars that some genius invented the backlit e-reader for obsessive and crumbly old bookworms like me. My e-reader shines on night after night in our house!
Chris Scarlett
Sheffield

• I showed your piece in G2 to my wife. She said “It’s OK. I’ll read it on my phone”.
Mark Hebert
St Ives, Cambridgeshire

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters