Edward Trunk

If they actually did the job they were voted in to do then I wouldn't care how much they were paid. I'd even pay for John Prescott's next lavatory seat myself. They're supposed to hold the government of the day rigorously to account, scrutinise proposed legislation carefully, and vote according to their good judgement and their consciences. All this they owe to their constituents. The corruption of political life, which turns most of them into lobby fodder, is far more serious than their financial fiddles.

I found this coin in the souk in Muscat in Oman. The obverse shows the head of Adolf Hitler with the date 1935. The reverse shows the Hapsburg Eagle with the value, 5 RM (reichsmarks). I've been doing some homework and am sure it's a fake. Firstly, Third Reich coinage did not have Hitler's head - it had that of Marshal Hindenburg. Secondly, the obverse and reverse have been minted up side down to each other. (In my picture, I've put them both the same way up.) I took it to a coin dealer opposite the British Museum and he couldn't make head nor tail (pun intended) of it. The thing is, if it is a fake, who on earth would want to forge a 5RM coin, and do it so badly? Any numismatists out there? PS..before anyone gets worried, I do not collect Nazi memorabilia. I found this in an unlikely place and wondered about its history.

While you are waiting for a sensible answer, here is the only joke in the world about gas barbecues: A man takes his first parachute jump. Despite following all the instructions, his parachute fails to open. Travelling downwards at some speed, he sees a man rising towards him at some speed. He shouts "Do you know anything about parachutes?" The other man shouts back, "No. Do you know anything about gas barbecues?"

We are travelling without hold baggage for the first time. Can we take toothpaste and face cream in the cabin baggage? What about a can of shaving foam?

If you are registered on the French tax system and have completed a declaration des revenus then your taxe d'hab will be adjusted according to your income.

We have just received a colorectal cancer testing kit through the post from our local CPAM. My wife refers to it as pooh sticks.

A bit of anarchy in the UK might not be a bad idea. I read today that Batclays bosses are to get huge bonuses from the sale of something or other. If the rich succeed they get rewarded; if they foul things up they get rewarded. If you take to the streets to protest about this you risk being beaten to death by an increasingly arrogant and unaccountable police force. Britons never shall be slaves? Tirez l'autre. Il y'en a cloches.

If you're going to Barcelona leave anything remotely valuable somewhere secure (and I would repeat the advice not to take your car.) To know one or two people who've been robbed there might be par for the course, but I know eight.

Thank you for all your kind thoughts, everybody. We think about her about ten thousand times a day. The house is empty without her. We are going away for a while.

We had to have her put to sleep this morning. She had deteriorated rapidly over the last few days; yesterday she stopped eating and last night I could hear her fighting for breath all night. We are very sad.

We took the cat plus her X-ray plates to a second vet, who examined the plates, listened to her breathing with an stethoscope and said that it was "grave". We are taking her back next week. She is still on the steroid tablets, but she seems to be getting slowly worse. We could take her to a veterinary hospital - it's a question of balancing the stress she would undoubtedly experience getting there (she doesn't travel well) plus all the tests and procedures - against lettingthings take their course. It's a very difficult time for us.

We have a ten-year old neutered female cat. In the past year she has started coughing a lot. I know that cats cough occasionally to bring up hairballs etc, but she never brings anything up, and recently the coughing bouts have been getting more frequent. Her appetite and digestive apparatus are OK, and in between bouts she seems OK, if more subdued than she used to be. We took her to the vet, who ruled out heart problems and worms and X-rayed her and said there was something wrong with her lungs and it wasn't going to get better. He gave us steroids to give to her. She is still coughing. We love her a lot and wonder if there is anything more that we can do. 10 seems very young for a cat to die. Any clues, anyone?