Another front-page triumph for the Guardian last Thursday: a photo of the ludicrously ermined, beribboned and bejewelled Charles and Camilla perched on golden thrones above an article about the dire levels of child poverty in the UK. A neat juxtaposition paints a thousand words. Claire Whatley Salisbury, Wiltshire I wonder how long it will take the taskforce on child poverty to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw and argue that “The trouble with the poor is that they don’t have enough money” (Starmer aims to avoid backbench rebellion with child poverty task force, 18 July). Marie Catterson London Building more houses will not fix the housing crisis (Report, 17 July). Britain does not have a lack of houses, it has a lack of houses for people who need them. Without rent controls, limits on second homes, and phasing out buy-to-let mortgages, new homes will just be snapped up by the rentier class and the problem will persist. David Youngs Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Re Royal Mail’s elastic bands (Letters, 19 July), when I delivered the Christmas post as a student, we tied the bundles of post with string, using a postman’s slipknot. We returned the string to the sorting office to be used again. Peter Hames Northam, Devon Our local library now helps with elastic bands. If you reserve a book, you can find it on a shelf for collection with a piece of old paper with your name on it. It is of course wrapped round the book with a rubber band. Bob Hargreaves Bury, Lancashire