A trick to master the nine times table | Brief letters

Brief letters: Fear of maths | Calculation tip | Idea for Andy Burnham | Repair cafes | A wipeable wall chart

Re Adrian Chiles on the nine times table (Struggling with the nine times table? I have a failsafe method, 21 May), here’s an easier method that doesn’t involve finger contortions: write down 0-9 in a column. Then, starting from the bottom, do the same alongside. Bingo! I taught maths in Strangeways prison and could get anyone to do times tables. Fear of maths is down to bad teaching.
Jan Wiczkowski
Prestwich, Greater Manchester

• An easier way to calculate the nine times table is to multiply by 10 and deduct the multiplier. For example, 7x9 = 70-7.
Michael Miller
Sheffield

• If Andy Burnham is looking for ideas (Burnham to back Shabana Mahmood’s immigration changes, allies say, 20 May), might I suggest he promises council tax reform from April 2029? A terrace house in Makerfield paying as much as a Westminster mansion is ridiculous. Putting money in people’s pockets in time for the election would be a vote-winner.
Phil Tate
Chester

• Elizabeth Monger (Letters, 18 May) laments the disappearance of hardware shops, which means it’s “a trip to the dump, and another online purchase” when something breaks. But there are local groups that fix broken items for free as part of the Repair Café International and Restart Project networks. There is even a repair cafe in her home city of Plymouth.
Gabriel Partos
Organiser, Wimbledon repair cafe

• I would prefer a wall chart with “100 best novels – the reader’s choice” that I could wipe clean and edit at will (Letters, 24 May).
Veda Franz
Perth

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