It’s commonly said that people use the most offensive swear words through laziness, ignorance or a juvenile wish to shock. Whereas great writers such as Dickens never used the F-word, why does your newspaper allow its columnists, such as Jemima Kelly (“Twitter isn’t the town square, it’s the theatre”, Opinion, May 5), to gaily employ it without asterisks? In line with Ofcom’s 2016 survey of the public’s tolerance of various swear words, your disregard of readers’ sensibilities could be considered a damn discourtesy.

Percy Grainger
Theberton, Suffolk, UK