The jokes and other slogans in greetings cards have become so rude and potentially offensive that shops are having to take action. Branches of the stationery shop Scribbler now carry a sign in their windows, warning that some of its cards are “of an adult nature”. Paperchase has gone a step further: it has started putting explicit cards on the top shelf.

Could someone explain the cultural advantage of using four letter words and references to body parts, especially those of women? I am truly mystified. I remember my English teacher saying that those who use disgusting language do so because they are basically inarticulate and have lousy command of the language. A civilised person has no need of vulgarity. And yet, this form of speech and writing seems to be increasingly acceptable. Of course, one person’s “disgusting” is part of another person’s indispensible, if limited, vocabulary – I understand that.

We went last summer to the National Theatre to see a production of “The Three Penny Opera”. They must have used the f**k word fifty times. It truly added nothing to the original words and songs; it just showed a lack of imagination. We walked out at half time and failed to stay and watch the f*****g.

Please give me a good reason why vulgarity is exchanged for perfectly adequate other forms of speech and is thought “artistic”.

Cambridgeshire: Punt chauffeurs in Cambridge were advised this year that they must deliver a safety briefing before every trip up the River Cam. Among other things, passengers should be told not to let their hands dangle in the water, and that amplified singing is banned. Large illustrated “safety information” stickers in the punts will reinforce the message.

Norfolk: Student union officials in Norwich stopped undergraduates wearing sombreros at a freshman’s fair because they deemed it offensive to Mexicans.

University of East Anglia students were handed the straw hats by a Tex-Mex restaurant that was running a stall at the fair. But union representatives quickly confiscated the hats, saying that non-Mexicans wearing them were guilty of “cultural appropriation”.

Hertfordshire: Britain’s oldest pub was urged to change its name. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, in St Albans, was founded in the eighth century, and has had its current name since 1872. But the animal rights group Peta said it should now be changed, to “reflect today’s rejection of needless violence and help celebrate chickens as the intelligent, sensitive and social animals they are”. Peta associate director Mimi Bekhechi suggested, as a more suitable alternative, Ye Olde Clever Cocks.

Cornwall: At Bodmin Town Council meetings, the biscuits were reportedly being handed around with blown-up photocopies of their packaging, so that attendees could check their ingredients before tucking in. New rules, to make life easier for allergy sufferers, also insisted that if necessary, the list of ingredients be translated into other languages and offered as a “talking book”.

West Midlands: Delegates at the National Union of Students’ Women’s Conference in Solihull were asked to use “jazz hands” instead of clapping, because of reports that the sound of applause was “triggering anxiety” among some attendees. In a tweet, the union’s Women’s Campaign said whooping could also be “super inaccessible” – and urged delegates to “be mindful”.

Yorkshire: Inspectors marked down a Yorkshire care home because staff addressed residents as “love”, “darling” and the like. The Care Quality Commission described carers at the home in Harrogate as “very nice” – but said the terms of endearment could be regarded as “demeaning”.

Oxfordshire: An old red telephone box that residents of Banbury in the UK use as an informal library was scheduled for demolition – because British Telecom was concerned that the shelf installed to hold the books might fall down and hurt somebody. “We had a complaint about the wobbly shelving from a resident,” a BT spokesman said. “Imagine if we had ignored it and little Janet or John had been injured.”

I don’t know whether people are just spoiled or super-sensitive or whether authorities are being patronising, but we have managed without this silly stuff for 200,000 years or more, and perhaps we ought to grow up? For instance, Yorkshire men and women have been calling each other “love” and “darling” for five hundred years at least. If you really object to it, smile nicely and politely ask if they would use your name.Yes?

To The Guardian
The debate on inheritance tax focuses on the wrong issue: the lower threshold for IHT. The real problem is the upper threshold – not a precise value set by Parliament, but we all know it exists. Above it are so many exemptions, trusts, loopholes, schemes, dodges and scams, that IHT becomes entirely voluntary.

Two-thirds of Britain’s 60-million acres are owned by 0.4% of the population, and are largely exempt from IHT. As this land never comes to market, these grotesque perpetual fortunes distort life for the other 99.6% of us. If massive landowners had to pay 40% IHT, like anyone else, it would raise tens of billions per year; 92% of people never pay IHT. It’s a tax you don’t have to pay until you’re dead; and land cannot be hidden or removed to a tax haven; what’s not to like?
Martin Lyster, Oxford

The inheritance tax, or, rather, the ineffectivenes of the inheritance tax, is a scandal in both the US and UK. I have only lobbied Congress once. My wife and I were doing our little bit to protect the IHT, which Republicans are always trying to abolish. My pitch was this: “Back In 1776 you guys rebelled against Good King George, and one of the things you wanted gone was a self-perpetuating aristocracy. Over two centuries later you are now deliberately creating an inherited aristocracy of wealth, passed from generation to generation with the help of unscrupulous accountants and lawyers. One should be able to pass on money and possessiont one’s children, but in moderate amounts. The debate should be the meaning of “moderation”. Multi-millions do not denote moderation. I should have also said that massive wealth buys education at Harvard and Yale as well – with all the benefits great contacts bring in life – generation after generation.