Hurrah! A New Year’s gift from Elon Musk | Short letters

Over the past six months, “things can only get better” seemed like an unnecessary hope. And then comes a headline that refutes it (Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage and calls for a new leader of reforms, January 5).
Lesson Helder
Exeter

My prediction for 2025 was that the narcissistic egos of Nigel Farage, Elon Musk and Donald Trump would inevitably lead them to turn on each other, leading to their collective self-destruction. I wish I had placed a bet on it.
Sarah James
Monmouth

About Christine Evans’ account of her operation in Africa, as the nurse held an operating book open for her (Letters, January 3). My father was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 1954 and his surgeon in Aberystwyth had never performed a colectomy and colostomy before. As Dad told it, the surgeon performed the operation with his scalpel in one hand and a phone in the other, taking instructions from a colleague in Harley Street. The operation was otherwise successful.
Barry Hughes
Edinburgh

As for rewriting classic novels (Editorial, December 30), in the early 1970s, at the dawn of the Tolkien mania, I enjoyed the classic novel rewrite Bored of the Rings, with characters like Spam Gamgree and Legolam.
Richard Barnard
Wivenhoe, Essex

I went to my local multi-million pound NHS healthy living center to weigh myself but was told there were no scales for public use and I should try the pharmacy.
Ralph Jones
Rochester, Kent