What is art for, if not for political discourse | Royal Academy of Arts

In your article (Royal Academy removes Gaza-inspired works after Jewish group flags concerns, 18 July), the Royal Academy states: “We recognise that an exhibition for young people and artwork by young people is not an appropriate environment for volatile public discourse.” Really? Then what is its purpose, if any?
Simon Lauris Hudson
Pontefract, West Yorkshire

Melvyn Ellis (Letters, 18 July) asks how we can still rely on nature to predict the seasons. Well, I would invite him to my part of the Pennine foothills where, last week, while walking my Yorkshire terrier, I came across holly bushes covered in berries. So Christmas has come early in West Yorkshire.
Dr Mark Wilcox
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

Regarding your article (How to solve a mass stranding: what caused 77 healthy whales to die on a Scottish beach?, 18 July), the largest pilot whale stranding in the UK was not on the island of Sanday but at Thorntonloch Beach near Dunbar in 1950, when 147 pilot whales were stranded.
Dr James Herring
Author of Stranded: The Whales at Thorntonloch in 1950

Royal Mail elastic bands (Letters, 21 July) are useful when looped over a button as a stopgap to ease the waistband of a skirt or trousers on the way back from a big dinner.
Trish Durrant
Bristol

Once you’ve filled your 35mm film canister with elastic bands, you could then wrap it with elastic bands(Letters, 19 July).
Adam Guest
Cromer, Norfolk