Sir, - Having just returned after a few days in Germany I realise how fortunate we are to be - in the Tanaiste's words - "closer to Boston than Berlin". In Germany I discovered that shops don't open on Sundays. In fact many don't open on Saturday afternoons. Also, the Germans have yet to discover the joys of sitting for hours in traffic jams. Instead, they go about on foot, on specially constructed cycle paths, or by punctual and inexpensive public transport.
Although plastic bags are readily available - free - in the shops, they don't seem to know how to hang them in trees and hedgerows as is the custom here. They also have a bizarre custom of placing litter (segregated according to type) in designated bins instead of scattering it far and wide over the landscape.
We must be grateful for the skill of successive governments since our accession to the EU that we have managed to extract so much money from the Germans without becoming contaminated by any of their silly ideas about civic responsibility, quality of life, or care of the environment. - Yours, etc.,
Barry Toomey, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co Dublin.