Plant trees, and make sure they are watered | Brief letters

Saving saplings | A proper referendum | Smartglasses | Showing guests the door

I am delighted to hear Angela Eagle has pledged that half a million trees will be planted in the next three years ( Report, 30 September ). However, it is really important that there is a system for regular watering until they become established. Across the country there are swathes of newly planted saplings where about 80% have died due to lack of appropriate management. The resulting impact on climate, shade and water storage is also reduced by 80%. Diana Lowry Epping, Essex

If Andy Burnham does promise a referendum on rejoining the EU ( Report, 3 October ), I hope he will have courage enough to say that, for this constitutional issue, the threshold for victory will be at least 60%, rather than a simple majority, as should have been the case in the 2016 referendum. John Bridcut Liss, Hampshire

I hope you mean smartglasses, not smart glasses ( Norway plans temporary ban on smart glasses in some public places, 5 October ). I shall be very disappointed not to be able to visit Oslo next year in my rather fetching Garrett Leight varifocals. Mark Hann Dorridge, West Midlands

I remember being told as a child that, when visitors overstayed their welcome ( Letters, 5 October ), my Uncle Leo used to say to his wife: “Haway, Mary, we need to go to bed. These good folk want to go home!” Pat Finn Sunderland

When anyone overstayed their welcome, my late brother-in-law would put on a recording of traditional Chinese opera. Val Mainwood Wivenhoe, Essex