Planting trees is not back-breaking work

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/19/planting-trees-is-not-back-breaking-work

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Punishing Sycamore Gap vandals | Sten dos | My ‘hag’ party | Thatcher centenary celebrations | Duncan Campbell’s legacy

Matt Powell suggests the Sycamore Gap vandals be punished by an order to plant 2,000 trees each, describing this as “loathsome, back-breaking work” (Letters, 14 May). It’s a creative idea but, as a former forestry worker with years of tree-planting experience and a fine, unbroken back, I take issue with his description. It’s healthy work, far more satisfying than many jobs, and planting 2,000 trees would only be about 10 hours’ work at a reasonable pace.Nic PeaseInchigeela, County Cork, Ireland

Jane Lowe wonders if she and her husband were “sten party” trendsetters in 1979 (Letters, 18 May). My wife-to-be and I held a similar event in a riverside pub on the night before our wedding in 1965. Great memories.Richard CardenDenton, Norfolk

When I married in 1998, I was the only male in a team of around a dozen workers. On the evening before my wedding, my female colleagues treated me to a meal out and referred to the event as “Iain’s hag party”. (Their words, not mine!)Iain LindsayOxford

South Kesteven district council is to hold a festival for the centenary of Margaret Thatcher’s birth. What form will the celebrations take? Is it planning to make half of the council employees redundant?Alex BaxterSouthgate, London

A short note of gratitude for the friendship and support of Duncan Campbell (Obituary, 17 May), without whom Fair Trials would not have flourished.Stephen JakobiRichmond, London

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