I am happy to publicly apologise to Brian Neate. I did not mean to imply that he personally supports Donald Trump, or that he is comfortable with the fact that the ex-President boasted about groping women. I am glad to hear he doesn’t.

The point I was making, perhaps clumsily, is that Mr Neate’s remark that many people would go ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ at the thought of Johnson reproducing nine times – despite having warned of the catastrophic dangers of an overpopulated planet – is to dismiss his hypocrisy too easily. Just as many Trump supporters, I hope Mr Neate will agree, were far too ready to dismiss Trump’s vile language as merely ‘locker-room talk.’

As for the ‘flaw’ in my mathematics, when I argued that it would be disastrous for life on Earth if every man followed Johnson’s example, that I do not concede.

Anthony Hentschel

Nailsworth