Proper tea for Troyes and Biarritz visitors | Brief letters
Your excellent editorial on fixed-odds betting terminals (21 August) omitted an important factor in the debate. Last year I submitted a freedom of information request to the Metropolitan police which revealed that since 2010 there has been a 68% rise in violent crime associated with betting shops in London. Customers, having lost large sums of money, can resort to violence out of anger or frustration. On occasion they attack the machines, but at other times assault the staff who may be working alone in the premises.
Dr Alan Smith
Bishop of St Albans
" During a visit to a salon de thi(C) in Troyes (Letters, 23 August), our choices of proper tea were put into little muslin squares and tied up with ribbon, which then had boiling water poured on them in the cup. We had been expecting it to come in pots, but these worked brilliantly. Following the salon's example, we have had a tea timer for some years, which has three timers built in: orange sand for three minutes, blue for four, and green for five.
Roy Kettle
Hitchin, Hertfordshire