Pub closures mean old England is lost

Will Boris Johnson remove the whip from the Tory rebels who voted against the government’s new Covid restrictions (Report, 30 November)? He did so with the Brexit rebels. What’s different?
Maurizio Moore
Writtle, Essex

• Alan Whitehouse labels those who don’t rush to be vaccinated as “conspiracy theorists, Covid deniers or plain selfish” (Letters, 1 December). As a vegan against animal testing, who feels despondent that most humans appear to favour a get-out-of-jail vaccine instead of refraining from mistreating animals and creating zoonotic diseases, I feel none of those labels is appropriate or fair for people like me.
Alex Palmer
Kidlington, Oxfordshire

• When I first travelled to Europe, in 1962, proof of vaccination against smallpox was required by most countries. A thin, blue card certificate was filed inside my – blue, hardback – passport, secured by an elastic band. Couldn’t such a simple system be operated today for Covid-19 jabs?
Dave Verguson
Lindley, Huddersfield

• Apropos John Harris’s fears of losing our pubs (Britain’s pubs: we’ll soon see the value of them, but will it be too late?, 29 November), Hilaire Belloc foresaw the consequences 100 years ago when he warned that “when you have lost your Inns drown your empty selves for you will have lost the last of England”.
John Howes
London

• Regarding place names, is it too late to remind you of Condom in southern France (Letters, 1 December)?
Dave Milton
Gatley, Greater Manchester

• I’m a bit frustrated that Richard Mangan got his letter off about Climax, North Carolina, a day before I did.
Michael Cunningham
Wolverhampton