Sir – The Government may well have announced a £3.86m investment (which in this day and age doesn’t go very far, it seems) to improve broadband speeds in rural Oxfordshire. But official broadband speeds are about as reliable as asking an angler what size trout they caught at the weekend. The truth is often much less impressive than the claim. Whether or not broadband really is vital, it’s certainly become part of life for many of us. I find that my broadband can vary from reasonably nippy to achingly slow depending on the time of week (Wednesday evenings seem particularly slow for some reason) and I expect that to continue regardless of taxpayers’ cash being spent by the powers that be. Rather like vehicles clogging up new motorways not long after the roads have been opened, I think Internet traffic will soon fill whatever bandwidth is provided.

Nicholas Tranmere, Witney